Tiger's Redemption
by DreamerGirl526831
Summary: When Kelsey and Ren are suddenly called to India with their young son, Anik, neither of them suspect the surprise that is waiting for them at the front door. Can their love, and their lives, survive another quest like before?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello! This is my first Fanfic, so be nice :) It will be novel-length, and updates will most likely be slow after the summer of 2013, because school is going to kill me :) R&R!**

**DISCLAIMER: I in no way own any characters, places, or events you are already familiar with. All of these wonderful occurrences belong to the lovely Colleen Houck. I am but a humble writer wanting to have fun!**

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I was running through a fog, with everyone I loved begging me to turn away from my path. Even my mind knew that I should turn around and go back. But I also knew I couldn't. There was someone special at the end of this road, and I knew that if I kept going, I would find the best place of my life. I heard a warm, smooth voice call to me from the sides. I steeled myself to resist it, but it wasn't what I expected.

"You can do it, _iadala._ I am here with you. We can do it together," my husband said, and I could feel him kissing me slowly, sliding his hands into my hair. I felt content, knowing that I would never be alone again. Suddenly, he was torn from me. I heard yells and roars.

"No! She is mine!" I heard a voice say, a voice that I hadn't heard in a very long time. "I was to wed her before you or your brother! I will have her!" Lokesh yelled.

"You. Will. Never. Touch. Her. Again!" Ren snarled. "You tore me from her once, and you will never do it again," he said darkly.

"Oh, you have no idea what I can do to get her back," Lokesh laughs. "I_ will _have a son, and she will be his mother."

Ren roared, and I tried to sneak around past the fight to the end of this path, were I knew I would be safe. As I walked behind Lokesh, his hand shot behind him, and grabbed my wrist. I screamed, and Ren jumped at Lokesh, but not before Lokesh spun and disappeared, me with him.

~TR~

I scream, and sit up in bed with tears streaming down my face. Ren wakes up, and pulls me into his arms.

"Shhh, _priyatama_. I'm here, it wasn't real," he soothes me, rocking back and forth. "It's alright. No one can hurt you, _hridaya patni_."

I fold my hands over my stomach, and repeat my mantra of 'It's not Lokesh's, it's Ren's,' over and over and over. Ever since I found out I was pregnant last week, I've been having these nightmares. Last time, with Anik, my nightmares were a lot worse. I would wake up absolutely screaming in terror, and Ren would have to physically harm me, pinch me, or something along those lines, to calm me down. That's probably why he hasn't made the connection, that I'm pregnant, yet. I'll probably tell him today.

"Kells, I know you want anther child," Ren says, noticing my hands on what he thought was my empty womb. "I do, too. I'm really sorry I haven't been able to get you pregnant again. Do you want to tell me what your nightmares are?" he asks.

I sniffle. "I dream that Lokesh is back and trying to take me again. You know, to have a son. It starts out with me walking through fog, and people trying to get me to go off the path, but I know there's something special at the end. Then you come up and start encouraging me. When you start to kiss me, Lokesh comes up and you two start fighting. I try to sneak around and get to the end of the path, but he grabs me. You try to stop him, but Lokesh disappears, taking me with him. That's when I wake up," I say, tears flowing again.

"_Rajkumari_, it's alright. Lokesh is gone forever. You destroyed him yourself. We are safe in Oregon, and we are going to have a family, with dozens of children." I laugh at that. "We have a normal life now, even if our brother is a goddess' husband," Ren comforts me with a chuckle. "He can't touch you. Even if he did somehow come back, I would never let him near you."

"I know," I say and snuggle into his chest. "It just took me back to when I was taken and almost married Lokesh. What would you have done if Lokesh had married me before you got there?" I ask.

Ren yawns. "I don't know. I would have gotten you out of there, that's for sure. I never would have let you stay with him. If he had married you, then before we got married, you would have had to get divorced, but I don't think you would have had many qualms about that, would you?"

"No," I say, and start to pull away from him to go check on Anik.

"No, you don't, Mrs. Rajaram. You are staying right here. I plan to keep you here all night," he says, and hugs me closer.

"No, Ren, I'm going to make sure that I didn't wake Nik up," I say, using my nickname for Anik.

"Okay," he says as he releases me. "I'll come with you."

"No, I want to be by myself for a little bit, okay?" I say, sliding into my slippers.

"Okay," Ren says softly. "I love you, _meri aadoo_."

"_Mujhe tumse pyarhai_," I say with a slight smile. The only way I keep myself from staying is the need to see my son.

I pad softly down the hall to Nik's room. When we found out that I was pregnant, Ren and I knew that it was a boy, so we decorated one of the extra rooms accordingly. There is a dark oak crib, with a mobile above. The mobile is three tigers, one white, one black, and one orange. The walls are painted with trees, monkeys, and a general jungle theme. There are pictures everywhere. On the dresser, on the changing table, hanging one the walls, and one giant mural of a white tiger face with blue eyes on the ceiling. On the changing table, there is a picture of Ren and me, Nik and me, Ren and Nik, the three of us, and some pictures with Sunil and Nilima thrown in. It took two years before Nik was born after Ren and I got married, and it's been eight months since then. I know that isn't a lot of space between kids, but Ren wants a lot of kids, and I don't really care, so I'm happy either way. In the corner right by the crib is a dark brown rocking chair, and on the opposite side is a toy chest filled with stuffed animals and books. Across the room is the changing table, and the closet holds the dresser and some clothes that are too big for Nik.

I tiptoe to the edge of the crib, and gaze softly at my son. His small tuft of brown hair sets off his pirate-doubloon-gold eyes. Before I'd fed him tonight, I had put him into a set of monkey pajamas. This boy should never be afraid of jungle animals. He'll have grown up with enough of them. Ren and I even decided to keep the stuffed tiger that I got when I came back to Oregon after the first quest at the foot of Anik's crib.

I quietly pull Nik into my arms. "Shh," I shush him, so he doesn't wake up as I displace him. His head fits perfectly into the crook of my elbow, and I smile slightly as he moves his hand to suck his thumb. I reach into the toy chest and come up with a small stuffed dragon. I smile and think of Yinbailong and the Ice Palace. The smile leaves as I remember what I said to Ren that night, and I think of how different things might have been if I had said that to Kishan, or Damon, now. That leads me to think of Anik's sibling that only I know about.

I pad down the hall back to the peaches and cream master bedroom. Ren turns over and smiles at me.

"I didn't hear him crying," he says, and frowns at the thought.

"That's because he didn't. I didn't want to leave him, when I saw him sleeping," I explain.

"That's how I am with you. Sometimes I wake up and think about going to the store or something, then I look at you sleeping, and I can't."

I climb, gently, into the bed and set Nik down between us. I stroke the soft down on his head. Ren captures my hand and kisses it. I smile, and think of how clueless I was five years ago. I snicker, and Ren gives me a look.

"I was just thinking about my senior year of high school. I mean, I got a summer job and-bam!-I fell in love. I got entangled in a curse that turned two three hundred plus year old Indian princes into weretigers, fought the Kraken, dragons, vampires, vampire _monkeys_, managed to get both brothers to fall in love with me, which was a disaster, have the one I really love publicly beat someone up to date me. It was so _not _how I expected my life to play out," I snort.

"I'm glad that it did, though," Ren says seriously.

"Me, too," and I fall asleep with my hand cupped around my son.

~TR~

The next morning, I turn over to give Ren a kiss, but find a note instead.

_Iadala-_

_I went to the gym. I'll be back at about 8. _

_Love,_

_Ren_

I look at the clock and find that it's seven. _What time did he leave?_ I wonder. I also look down to put Nik back in his crib, but he's not there. I sprint down the stairs calling him frantically, even though I know that he won't be able to answer me, and run into Ren at the bottom of the stairs.

"Nik's gone," I say, and he laughs.

"No he's not. He's right here," he chuckles. "I brought him down with me so that he wouldn't wake you up if he woke before you," he says as he strokes my cheek. I dip my head, and kiss his palm.

"Don't do that!" I admonish, ineffectively. "Thank you, though. Where is he?" I ask with a laugh as we walk into the kitchen.

"Well, I had him in the seat thing," he says, referring to the bouncer that we keep in the kitchen, "but I took him out because he looked squished, and I put some blankets on the floor of the living room.

"Okay. Do you think that I should put him back in his crib?"

"No," Ren says. "I've been checking on him every ten minutes. Do you know if we have any more bacon?"

"I think I used the last of it yesterday morning. I'll go to the store and get some today. Is there anything else we need?"

"Well, we are almost out of milk, and there are only six pieces of bread left. If we go, we might as well get some butter, too," he lists.

"'Kay. Just let me get dressed, and we can leave. What happened to being gone until eight?"

"I was going to stay until eight, but I started thinking about all the things that could happen to you and Anik while I was gone, and I came home. Of course, you were both still sleeping. I just decided to stay here, and go with you later. That is, if you want to," he explains.

"I thought that was weird when I saw the note. But sure, I'll go to the gym with you. I'll put my workout stuff on, and then we can go to the store before or after we go to the gym," I plan. The phone rings. I look at the caller ID. "Huh, it's Nilima. Hello?"

"Hello, Miss Kelsey," she says.

"Nilima, I think that we've known each other long enough for you to call me Kelsey, without the Miss, don't you?" I tease.

"Yes, M- Kelsey. You'll never guess what happened!" she squeals.

"What?" I ask, intrigued.

"Sunil proposed!" she squeals.

"Oh, congratulations!" I exclaim. "Ren, Nilima's getting married!" He beams. "That's wonderful!" I tell her.

"Thank you, M- may I please just call you Miss Kelsey? It's what I'm used to.

"Yes, that's fine," I smile.

"Thank goodness," she exhales. "Do you think that you and Ren could come down and help plan the wedding?"

"Of course! We'll be down by the end of the week. I'll have Ren book our flight."

"You're a dear friend and sister," Nilima says gratefully.

"Don't think about it," I say lightly. "I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye, Miss Kelsey."

I hang up with a happy sigh, and turn to Ren.

"Can you believe it?" I shriek. "And now we'll all be related!"

"Yes, I can believe it. Sunil called me and told me that he felt weird proposing to a girl before asking the father, so he asked me," Ren says with a smirk.

"And you didn't tell me?" I say. "Why not?"

"Kells, calm down. You're going to wake Nik up," Ren says with a smile. "And I didn't tell you because he asked me not to."

"Oh," I say as we both turn to the living room at Nik's whimper. We dash in, and Ren scoops him up before I can.

"Shh, Nik. It's alright," Ren whispers, and soothes him in Hindi. I smile, and absentmindedly touch my abdomen. Ren looks up, and walks over to me. "Kelsey, are you pregnant?" he says directly.

I look up at him, shocked. "How did you know?"

He smiles. "I found the pregnancy test when I was taking the trash out," Ren laughs.

"Of course you did. Are you mad at me for not telling you?" I ask cautiously.

"Were you planning to never tell me?" Ren asks.

"No. I just-well, hadn't-um, told you yet," I stutter.

"I know, it's okay, Kells. I was never really mad at you," he says with a smile. He walks over and kisses me, not deeply, or even sweep-me-off-my feet worthy, except that it's Ren. But then I kiss him back, and he grabs my arm with one hand, and walks me backwards so I am pushed up against the wall. I put my hands around his neck, and then we remember that he's still holding Anik, but only because he whimpers at being squished so tightly between Ren and I. I smile, jiggle him, and coo at him and Ren hands Nik to me. I smile and kiss Ren one more time.

"I'll make breakfast, then I'll feed him, then we can go out," I say, breathless. I grin, glad that Ren knows. "Can you get the flight over?"

"Yes, _rajkumari_. Don't worry about it," Ren says, and lightly touches my stomach. "Boy or girl?"

"I don't know, but I want a girl," I say and walk over to the kitchen. "What do you want?"

"I don't care. As long as it's ours, it could be half tiger, for all I care."

"Well," I trail. "It kind of is."

"Not anymore. Beast was made mortal," Ren says cheerily. "Though I do miss being able to have you scratch my ears."

"That's weird," I snort. "I wonder if Anik will like tigers," I speculate.

"Well, we've surrounded him completely with them; he will either love them or hate them. I'm hoping the former."

"Me too." I head into the kitchen, and bend down to get a pan. "And if you make me go on bed rest when I get to six months again, I will not be happy," I warn.

"Yes, dear," Ren jokes.

I grab some eggs, a bag of shredded cheddar cheese, and a bag of frozen hashbrowns.

"Oh, a Scramble!" Ren says as is face lights up like a five year old in a candy store. "Now I really wish we had bacon."

"Hold your horses. I just remembered that I have to let it sit for two hours. So, eat a bowl of cereal or something while I get dressed, then I'll feed Anik. I'll mix bacon in when we get home."  
"Okay," his face falls, like a kid who doesn't get the cupcake he was promised.

"Don't look like your dreams were crushed. I'll be back down in a few minutes." I take Anik from Ren, and go upstairs. I change his diaper, and dangle things in his face to keep him distracted when I slip a new set of clothes over his head. I pull my shirt up, and guide his head to my breast. As he suckles, I think of the past two and half years.

When Ren and I got married, there was no real need to figure out how our money would be spent, since there was and unlimited amount of it, and there wasn't any reason to warm up to the house since we lived in it for almost a year before. So, we started trying for a baby right away. We both wanted to be parents. We were thinking that it might take a few months, but then it didn't happen.

We made a bunch of appointments, thought about artificial insemination, but eventually decided that it had only been a year, and it might have been a good idea to get used to living with someone else twenty-four seven.

Just after we had decided to let destiny do its work, I found out that I was pregnant. It was like the higher powers were saying, "You'll get what you want, but when we want you to have it, not when you want you to have it."

Just as I finish this thought, I look down and notice that Nik is sleeping. I adjust him, and my shirt, and put him down in his crib. I go into the master bedroom and slip into a pair of skinny jeans, a sheer lavender short-sleeved shirt that's longer in the back than in the front with a white tank top underneath, and a pair of white shiny sandals. I pull my hair back into a ponytail, and grab Nik on the way down.

Ren is waiting at the front door with the car seat. I snort and buckle our baby into the seat.

"You were gone longer than a few minutes," he says teasingly.

"Yeah, well, he took longer to nurse than I expected," I explain.

"Well, let's go!"

~TR~

On the way to the grocery store, Anik wakes up. He starts wailing and I try to think of what could be wrong as I try to comfort him from the front seat. Then I remember.

"Oh! I didn't burp him! _That's_ why he's fussy!" I exclaim.

"Well, we're almost there, and you can burp him when we get there. Is that okay?" Ren suggests as he exits the freeway.

"That sounds fine," I say, as I realize that we are only a minute and a half away from our destination.

When we pull into the parking lot, I jump out of my seat and snatch my son out of his seat.

I lay a cloth over my shoulder and pat Nik's back softly.

"Shh, mommy is very sorry that she didn't burp you before, but she is trying to fix it now," I say desperately. He finally burps, long and loud. I laugh gleefully and spin around. Ren holds my hand and I adjust Anik so he is situated on my shoulder.

When we get to the store doors, there aren't any carts left, so Ren goes to find one, and I wait for him. As I play with Anik, I hear a voice that I never thought I would hear again.

"Hey, Kelsey!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I can pretty much guarantee that the conversation does not start how you think it does, unless you are a genius. If so, kudos to you! R&R!**

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"Hi!" I say with a note of false cheer.

"Are you babysitting? I mean, I know that you wouldn't have stayed with that barbarian for long, because you must have come to your senses, and I don't see you marrying someone and having a child in two years. So, since you're still single, would you like to go out this weekend," Artie finishes, pulling is lavender and pink striped sweater vest down over his fleshy stomach.

I think of Ren putting on a pair of light denim jeans and a cobalt blue button down shirt with black curls. I had run my hands through his hair that morning, and we kissed for a long time. I involuntarily shiver.

Artie assumes that the shiver is because of him. He grins and comes closer. "So, I'll pick you up at six?" he asks.

"No, Artie-," I protest. "I didn't-."

"Who is this little guy anyway? Son of a friend, random stranger, nephew?" he asks casually.

"My son," I say shortly. Artie's eyes bug out. "And 'the barbarian' is my husband."

"Well, I won't apologize for my opinion, but I-," he swallows thickly, "congratulate you. Though I do think that you would have been better off with me." He bends down to kiss my hand just as Ren comes out with a shopping cart. He jumps in front of me.

"_You_," he says like it's the worst insult that he could come up with.

"You?" Artie says, like he can't believe who he is looking at.

"I thought I told you that Kelsey would never be available again," Ren says menacingly.

"Well, I assumed that Kelsey would come to her senses," Artie says, indelicately. Anik, uninterested in the drama unfolding before him, begins to cry. The sound leads Ren to loosen the fists clenched at his side, and turn to me.

"Is he okay?" Ren asks concernedly.

"He's fine, I say with a smile. "He's just mad because I stopped playing him," I say as I pull on each of his fingers and whisper at him. I hug him to my chest and smooth the soft brown-black down on his head.

Artie's eyes bug out, and he stalks off, presumably to send a package to his ex-girlfriend.

When he is out of earshot, I snigger loudly. "He called you a barbarian again," I jibe.

"I'm not surprised, but I am a little bit offended that he thinks he knows you so well. Are you okay?"

"Ren, he asked me out, he didn't punch me. I'm fine."

"Good. Now, we need bacon, milk, bacon, bread, bacon, butter, and bacon, right?" he lists.

"Wow, you really want the bacon, don't you?" I laugh.

"Well, if you're making a Scramble for me, you need to put in a whole package, _at least_," Ren says, and tugs on my ponytail. He takes Nik from me and buckles him into the cart seat. We walk into the store, together.

~TR~

Three days later, we board the private Rajaram Industries jumbo jet to go to India. I always feel weird that we are so rich, since neither one of us does anything for a living. When I think of it, I usually console myself saying that Mr. Kadam worked hard for, literally, centuries, and he did leave a hefty sum to both Ren and me, and so it should be spent in ways that would make him happy. Namely, us spending it the way we want to. But then, I think of Kishan, and I touch my necklace, and I think of how he would have adored Anik, and the kids to come.

I shake my head to clear the sad thoughts, and buckle Nik into the special seat Ren had installed in the plane for him. As I buckle myself in, Ren comes on board, and sits down in the buttery leather recliner with a seat belt. I look over at Nik, and see that he is already fast asleep. I laugh, and trace the dimples on his palms.

Ren lightly places his hand on the small of my back. I turn and smile at him. He points at my seat belt, and I buckle. He intertwines his fingers with mine, and I lean my head on his. My eyelids flutter a few times, and as I feel the plane take off, hear Ren speaking to me softly, in Hindi, I fall asleep.

~TR~

When I wake up, we are cruising above the Atlantic Ocean. Ren is sleeping, too, and I have the urge to use the restroom. I check on Nik, who is still asleep, and enter the copper and cream bathroom. When I come out, Nik is stirring fitfully, and starting to whimper. I dash over and unbuckle his entirely too complicated seat as fast as I can. When I finally do get him out, I cradle him close to my chest.

"Kelsey?" Ren says. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," I coo at Nik. I clear my throat. "Sorry, yeah. I think he was having a nightmare, though."

Ren takes him from me. "_Ladka, yehrehnatheek. Yehhona bas eksapna. Mat sataana_," he says, rocking our son back and forth smoothly.

I lean against the seat, and think of the new baby we'll have in seven months. Ren looks up and smiles at me.

"I could have said, 'Monsters are going to come eat you in your sleep and then I will turn into a tiger to finish you off,' and you wouldn't have been able to tell, right?" he jokes.

"Pretty much. As long as you say it like you want him to be okay, you could say whatever the heck you want," I say with a grin. "What did you say?"

"I said, 'It's okay. It was just a dream. Don't worry'," he says with a smile. "_Ladka_ literally means son, or infant, child, etcetera, but my father used to use it as a term of endearment for Kishan." Ren frowns. "I remember him calling Kishan many things, but all he ever called me was Dhiren. He sometimes called me '_meri uttaraadhikaari_' which means my heir, but I don't remember him being affectionate towards me."

I walk over to him and place my hand on his arm. "Ren, what you remember of him is from over three hundred years ago, so there may be things that you _don't_ remember-," I pause as Ren interrupts.

"So you think I just forgot that my father actually cared about me?"

"No, I think that you are jealous of Kishan, like you always have been. Your parents gave up ruling a kingdom and moved into the jungle to be with you when you were a tiger. If that isn't proof of love for your child, then I don't know what is," I say, putting my hands on my hips. "Did your mother have nicknames for you?"

Ren grins at that. "She called me _rajkumar_, similar to one of my favorite name for you, _rajkumari_, and _meri kripaapatra_, which means my favorite, but only when Kishan wasn't around. There were more, but those were the ones she used most often."

"See?" I say, and poke his chest above Nik. "I'm sure that Kishan was jealous of your relationship with your mother. After all, you were going to get both of the women he loved, the crown, and you were generally better than him. Except possibly at martial arts," I finish thoughtfully.

"Hey!" he protests.

"What! He said that he loved Yesubai and me; you were older than him; and you are better at negotiations, better looking, and more dangerous. Except in fighting, because unless it involves me, you follow the rules, and he didn't. He probably has to now, being a god and everything."

"Miss?" A flight attendant says, sticking her head into the cabin from the attendants' quarters between the cockpit and the cabin. "Would you like lunch?"

I look at Ren, and he shrugs. "Yes, please. I'm Kelsey, by the way," I say, approaching the door.

"Genevieve," she says, and enters the cabin as she straightens her skirt. That's funny. One of my best friend's name was Genevieve in elementary school "Have you lived in Oregon all your life?" she asks, inclining her head slightly to the left, just like Gemmy.

"Yeah," I say slowly. "Where are you from?"

"Oregon. Where did you grow up?"

"Salem. You?"

"Same. Your maiden name wouldn't happen to be Hayes, would it?" she says with a dazzling smile.

"It would. Gemmy?" I say incredulously

"I wondered how long it would take you. How are you?" she asks, hugging me tightly.

"I'm fantastic. What about you? Did you marry Neil?" I ask her, teasing her about the guy about she had a crush on all through elementary school.

She laughs. "No, but we did go out for awhile in high school. I'm dating a guy named Artie at the moment."

"Wait, sweater vest Artie? He went to WOU a few years ago and worked in the language lab?" I ask.

"Yeah. Why, do you know him?"

"Uh, yeah. He asked me out earlier this week. We went out one time three years ago, and it was one of the-never mind. Do you like him?"

"Yeah, I do. He's really sweet. But we've been going out for almost a year and a half. You say he asked you out a few days ago?" she says dubiously.

"Yeah. Well, more like told me out, but then my husband came out. Speaking of, Ren, get over here," I say as I beckon him over.

"Hi, I'm Ren," Ren says, as he repositions Anik to shake Gemmy's hand.

"Genevieve, but you can call me Gemmy," she says with another bright smile.

With her long, thick, and straight strawberry-blonde hair; perfect skin that is either the result of taking wonderful care of herself or an expert hand with make-up; bright white teeth; and perfectly manicured nails, it's no wonder that I felt inferior to Gemmy in fifth grade. She changed schools for middle school, and then she moved out of county for high school, then I ended up gallivanting across India before we could reconnect.

"Hi, Gemmy," Ren says, with a more dazzling smile.

"Gemmy," I say, taking Anik from Ren, "this is my son, Anik. If you want, you can call him Nik."

"Oh, he's adorable! How long have you guy been married?" she asks me.

"About two and a half years," I say thoughtfully. "Yeah, Nik was born two years after we got married, and he's about eight months old."

"Wow, how long did you guys date before you got married? Didn't you just get out of college?"

Well, just thrown the two hard ones at me, why don't you? I take a deep breath. "Well, we had a rather complicated relationship, before we got married. Um, we dated for about six months before Ren got, uh, transferred to India for his work, and I had to stay here for school. We decided to break up, and then I went out with his brother. He, uh, came back with a girlfriend, and Ren's brother and I were engaged, but then Kishan…Died in a plane crash, and Ren and I got engaged about six months later." I stop at her questioning look. "What?"

"We always thought that _I_ would be the one with a complicated love life."

"Yeah, well, it looks like we were wrong," I say wryly.

"What about college?" she asks innocently, not knowing how close I am to changing her life with myths she thought were only myths.

"Well, I finished my first semester of freshman year normally, then Ren's, well, father needed me to go to India to catalog some artifacts that he and his team found on a dig, so I finished second semester online, and then I married Ren, and he's the head of the company, and we decided that one of us should stay home with the kids that we would have, so I didn't go back," I shrug, hoping that I could remember the huge lie I just told.

"Well, you're life is much more exciting than mine," Gemmy says slowly.

"And much, much, _much_, more complicated," I mutter.

"What was that?" she asks innocently.

"Nothing," I say brightly.

"Oh!" she says quickly. "I was supposed to get your lunch, wasn't I?" she says. "I'll be right back," she says as she ducks around the curtain separating our quarters.

"Well then," Ren says. "How do you know her?" he asks quizzically.

"We were besties in grade school," I smile.

"Two things: Besties and grade school," Ren says, reminding me that he has only been in the U.S. for about five years.

"Besties are best friends, and grade school is elementary school," I explain.

"Information filed for future use," he jokes. He holds out his crooked arm, and I slide my arm through him as we walk back to our table.

~TR~

Ten minutes later, Gemmy comes out carrying a tray with two plates and two glasses of ice-cold water. She bends down and presses the button that pops the table out. She sets the glasses down in the indentations, and sets the plates down in front of us.

"Today's lunch is macadamia nut-crusted chicken filet with a side of summer vegetables, and a peanut butter cookie topped with ice cream for dessert," she announces. "Enjoy," she says formally.

As Ren and I dig in, with me holding Anik, we talk about what Nilima and Sunil's wedding should be like. I think that they should have a ceremony similar to what Sunil would have participated in, back in his time, but Ren thinks that they should have a modern ceremony, based on the fact that both of them have been so isolated from society, that the wedding would be an almost coming-of-age ceremony.

"But, Ren," I protest. "Neither one of them really wants to be part of modern society."

"True," he says, pointing his fork at my face. "But that is exactly why they need to be initiated."

"Ren, that's like saying that, um, let me think," I say, twisting my face, trying to find a ridiculous example. "That's like saying…that I should have taken you to a night club on your first night in the U.S.," I say triumphantly.

"And you should have taken me to a nightclub. I think I would have enjoyed it very much," he says very superiorly.

"Ren, darling, do you know what a nightclub _is_?" I ask sweetly.

"A club that meets at night, I assume," he says with the same tone.

"Well, you assume wrong. It is where teenagers go, wearing tight, sort-of dresses, in respect to the girls, and dance _very_ inappropriately, and sneak off to rooms provided," I say, proud that I thought of something.

"Well, that does sound, um,_ interesting_," Ren says suggestively, and waggles his eyebrows.

I blush. "I'm sorry; I thought that I was talking to Dhiren. But, it appears that Kishan has magically reappeared," I joke.

"Oh, that reminds me. Wonderful story you told your friend there."

I frown. "I wish that I didn't have to lie to people. If only that our relationship had been that simple."

"Hey," Ren say gently as he taps my chin to make me look at him. "Everyone is happy. You and I got married and are having children, Kishan married a goddess, and Nilima is marrying Sunil. There isn't any reason to be sad."

"But, Ren," I say, tortured by theses thoughts. "You were tortured by Lokesh and had to watch me try to love Kishan; I got mauled by a bear, almost got my leg bitten off by a shark and a kraken, you forgot me, and I had to figure out which three hundred year old were-tiger I should marry; Kishan got a face full of dragon fire and watched the girl he loved try to love him, but love his brother," I say, breathless. "And we can't forget the part where both of you had to be _tigers_ for at least six hours. Kishan spent three hundred years punishing himself for killing the girl that he_ thought_ he loved, but found out that he didn't kill her or love her when a _raven_ _sucked out his brain_," I moan.

Ren takes my hand from across the makeshift table. "_Kelsey_," he says exasperatedly. "I wasn't present for some if that, but I can assure you that Kishan regrets none of it. I know I don't," he says sweetly. "And from what I heard, it didn't suck out his brain. It just took off his sunglasses." I laugh weakly at his reference to Kishan's analogy.

"I know," I say as I wipe a few stray tears from my eyes. "I just wish that we could have met in college, gotten married after dating for a year, and never had all the chaos and heartbreak."

"But we wouldn't be the same if we hadn't," Ren says with a slight smile on his face. "_Kelsey_," he says turning the hypnotic aspect of his voice up to high. "What's really the problem here?"

"I'm not really sure," I answer. "It's probably just hormones."

"Okay," Ren says doubtfully.

"Ren, do you remember when I was pregnant with Anik?" I say, referring to the time when I almost slapped him for telling me the he liked a lighter green for the nursery, or the time when I started bawling because I made dinner and there weren't leftovers, so I thought that I didn't make enough.

"You're right," he says reluctantly.

"The pregnant lady always is," I tease him.

"Hm. You are correct there as well. I will never argue with you again."

"I doubt that," I, inelegantly, laugh.

"No, I promise!" Ren says loudly.

"Shh!" I admonish ineffectively, as a laugh accompanies it. "Nik's just fallen asleep.

"Kelsey, why do you call him Nik? Don't you like his full name?" Ren asks me.

"No, that's not it at all!" I exclaim. "He just looks really, well, not Indian, so Anik sounds weird, and Nik is an appropriate sort of American name with a little twist, and it fits his name, so I figured, you know, why not?" I babble. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yes, it's fine," he assures me. "I was only curious."

"Kelsey? Mr. Rajaram?" Gemmy says, peeking out of the curtain.

"Call me Ren," Ren interjects.

"Oh, thank you, sir, but the rules say that I either have to call you 'Sir' or 'Mr. Rajaram'," she explains. "I just wanted to tell you that the plane will be landing in about five minutes."

"Thanks, Gemmy," I say warmly. "Oh! What's your phone number?"

"Oh, I don't have one. I'm not living on the streets or anything, but I'm not doing that well in the way of money at the moment. You have Artie's number, right?" I nod. "Just call him, and he'll get back to me."

"Okay, I say cheerfully. She'll never hear from me again. "Just ask Artie to text me or something, and I'll get back to him, too."

"Great," she smiles as she ducks back behind the curtain.

I buckle Nik into his seat, careful not to wake him. As I sit back in my seat, I see Ren leaning his elbows on his knees and studying me.

"Is everything okay?" I ask him curiously.

He shakes his head, like what I do to refocus. "Yes." He reaches over and caresses my stomach. "I love you."

"I love you more," I say, starting one of our games. Ren realizes what I'm doing and grins.

"No, I love _you_ more." And on and on and on, until we get off the plane.

~TR~

Nilima is waiting in a new car out one the tarmac as I hug Gemmy goodbye with one arm and hold Nik tightly with the other.

After Ren gets all of our suitcases into the trunk and Nik is buckled into the car seat, I ask Nilima to see her ring.

She grins, and extends her left hand toward me. The narrow silver band is topped with a medium-sized, circle-cut diamond, which is surrounded by smaller, circle-cut diamonds.

"Oh, Nilima!" I exclaim. "It's beautiful!"

"Thank you, Ms. Kelsey," she nods. "Sunil told me that he brought his mother's ring with him when Phet told him that he would have to come back with you, since he hoped to marry someone."

"That's so precious," I say with a sigh. "You hear that, Nik?" I say to my sleeping infant son. "Learn from Sunil and your father and girls will be flocking to you from all over the world."

Ren smiles at me and cranes his neck to see the ring. "Hmph," he says crossing his arms. "Not bad," he says begrudgingly.

"Hey," I say with a laugh. "I still like mine better," I reassure him.

"Okay," he says, appeased.

~TR~

When we get to the house, I take Nik out of the car and walk up to the front door as Ren struggles with the bags.

"Do you need any help?" I call back to him.

"No," he grunts. "Wow, I really need to get back to the gym," he comments.

"That's not true," I tease him. "I saw you get dressed this morning, and there is absolutely not an ounce of cells that aren't pure muscle on you."

"That doesn't mean that I don't have to go to the gym anymore," he argues.

"I know, I just-never mind," I sigh. "Hey Nilima!" I call back to her. "Is Sunil home?"

"Yeah, just knock."

I knock, and hear the confusing rush of more than one pair of footsteps to get to the door.

"Who is it?" a voice that sounds teasingly familiar says.

"Sunil, let me in," I say tiredly. "I want to put Nik down."

"I am not Sunil, and who is Nik?" I can tell that whoever is speaking is altering their voice, and it is driving me crazy.

"I mean it!" I say exasperatedly. "Just open the door!"

"Let us in," Ren says, his struggle with the bags obvious in his voice.

"Fine." He drops the alteration from his voice, and I recognize it. I look wildly at Ren, but he seems just as surprised as I am. The door opens, and I almost drop my son onto the hard tile floor as my suspicions are confirmed.

"Hello, _bilauta_," Kishan says with a glint in his eye.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: KISHAN! Explanations in the near future. When you get to the explanation, please keep in mind that I am not saying that any of the religion bit is true, or that it remotely makes any sense. Nor am I saying that it is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and it absolutely has to be true because, well, it does. Take your pick :) R&R!**

* * *

"_Kishan_!" I shriek. "Wha-how-,"I stutter as he sweeps me up into a bear hug. "Careful!" I shout. "Baby on board!"

"I missed you, too, Kells," he laughs as he gently sets me down.

"But-," I stammer. "You-you-you stayed as Durga's tiger. And you wrote us a letter saying how you were happy. _How are you here?_" I hiss.

"Why don't you come inside, and I'll tell you," he says with a smile. During this entire exchange, Ren has been opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"Brother?" he finally manages to say, his eyes filling with tears.

"Yes, Dhiren," Kishan says.

"You will explain everything?" Ren asks.

"Yes. Come inside, and all, well, most, will become clear."

~TR~

When we are all situated in the library, Kishan gestures at Nik. "I assume that is the baby I saw?"

I smile. "Yes. This is Anik Kishan. I would let you hold him, but he's asleep," I say as I angle my son so his uncle can see him. Kishan grins, and then sighs.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when he was born," he says sadly.

"Why are you apologizing?" I say, confused. "It's not like there was anything you could do about."

"I wasn't apologizing, it was like…'I wish I was' kind of 'I'm sorry I wasn't'," he explains.

"Oh," I frown. "Again, it's not like there was anything you could do about it."

"I still wish I could've been here," he says firmly. "I wish that I was here when you guys got married, and I wish I was here all through Nilima and Sunil dating so that I could tease both of them about it. I'm not sorry for the life I got instead, but I am sorry for the life I missed. And I am most sorry for the pain I caused you. All of you, by leaving," he says.

"Oh, Kishan," I say, touching his cheek. "It's okay. Ren bugged Sunil and Nilima enough for both of you, and you only missed out on a lot of crying and dirty diapers with Nik." As if to prove my point, Nik suddenly starts screaming. "See?" I say with a small smile. I rock him and pat his back and cradle him, but he doesn't stop. I feel my hair starting to frizz, and I give Ren a frantic look.

"Give him to me," Ren says, holding his hands out. I hand our son over, and Ren murmurs to him in Hindi. Nik soon quiets, and I continue.

"I told you it was a lot of crying. You haven't experienced the dirty diapers yet, and you don't want to."

"I don't know. Ghima was pretty bad," Kishan says with a smile. Ren and I both look puzzled. "My, um," Kishan stops and counts on his fingers, "thirteenth child."

"What?" I shriek. "How man kids do you have?"

"Hang on," he says as he counts on his fingers again, only for a much longer period of time. "Fifty-two," he says triumphantly, like he was proud of himself for being able to remember all of his kids. I stare, open-mouthed.

"What?" he says defensively. "I've been married for almost four hundred years, Kells. I'm honestly surprised that there aren't more, but Mika doesn't get pregnant very easily."

"Okay, too much information, Kishan," I say, motioning for him to stop. "I know I never loved you as much as Ren, but I was still engaged to you at one point."

"Sorry," he says. But he says it with a grin, so I know he's not. "Any way, I should probably explain some things."

"Understatement," I snort.

Kishan smiles. "Yeah, you're right. Well, my wife, your sister," Kishan says, nodding at Sunil, "sent me here, because there is something else she needs," he says bluntly.

All of a sudden I can't breathe. "We have to go on another quest?" I say worriedly. "But what about Anik?" We can't just miss six months of his life, and he can't come with us," I say, starting to cry. "And we need to plan Nilima and Sunil's wedding, and we have a life outside of saving you two now. Ren and I live in Oregon, I have a weekly babysitting job for Sarah and Mike, and…," I stop as I see Ren glaring at Kishan.

"Not to mention the fact that Kelsey is pregnant again," Ren says; very, very, angry.

Kishan's eyes widen. "Well then. Congratulations, first," he says with a smile. "How far along are you?"

"Two months," I reply. "I'm due on February twelfth."

"Then we will leave in March," Kishan says definitely. "I will not let you go on a quest pregnant."

I snort. "While I am very glad that you feel that you feel that way, as I do too, I don't appreciate the fact that you are telling me what to do," I say with a smile.

"Too bad," he says. "I have a feeling that Ren agrees with me."

"You feel correctly," Ren says smugly. At my glare, he answers, "What? You know that I've always done what will keep you safe, even if you don't like it."

"I know," I sigh resignedly. "That doesn't mean that you can tell me to do whatever you want."

"I know _that_, Kells," he says with a sigh identical to mine.

"Good," I say, ending the conversation. "Kishan, what is it exactly that we need to do?"

"Well, Mika needs the Holy Book. It's basically a survivor's crash course in all the religions. The parts that are real, that is. For example, most of Hinduism is based in fact. The gods are real, and their duties are real, except that they can't punish mortals. In Christianity, the idea that one god would control everything, without lieutenants is ridiculous. However, there is one unnamed being that rules over all gods. Everything kind of ties in together.

"When Pangaea split into different continents, the unnamed force sent groups of his 'minions', for lack of a better term, around to different parts.

"The Hindu group originally called themselves 'the Ganges' and then named the river after their old name. They split up domains according to interests, and then started appointing monarchs, and setting up society. The same happened with the Greek gods, and the Egyptian gods, but he unnamed force wanted to start a few religions that were monotheistic."

"Wait," I interrupt. "Why is it an 'unnamed force, being, etcetera?"

"Because he, well, it, is so removed from the rest of us, that no one even knows if it is male or female. It used to be friends with all of its people, but when they split, it had to remove itself. Durga wasn't one of the original lieutenants, as you well know," he says, nodding his head at me. "In Greece, the gods could make one of their favorite mortals immortal, and in Egypt, there were the gods that decided to abide in a human's body, making a 'godling' and that human could do magic and fight better with the god's help," he says.

I stare. "And I thought that the Indian mythology stuff was complicated."

Ren smiles. "Well, at least we have more options for places this time, since we can look at all the myths instead of just Hindu's," he comments.

"Actually, everything we'll need is from Indian," Kishan clarifies. "We will have to go to another temple and Ana will have gifts and the prophecy for us."

I exhale a breath that I didn't realize I was holding. "So we won't be going into this blind."

"Not at all," Kishan reassures me. "I've gotten better at seeing small things in poetry or riddles, so I might be able to pick something up that you guys wouldn't, and we all have more experience with the world. It should be a lot easier," he says calmly.

I realize something that makes tears come into my eyes. "But we won't have Mr. Kadam," I say in a whisper.

Ren looks at me with a soft gaze. "Kelsey, look at me." I raise my watery eyes to his, and he smiles a little. "We are going to be okay. We don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"No, I do," I say as I wipe the tears from my eyes. "Let me see Nik," I say, holding my arms out. I cradle my son close, and he calms me. He stares up at me with unknowing eyes, and I touch his head. Nik squirmed in my arms, and fluttered his eyes closed. I smile, look up at Kishan and Ren, and take a shaky breath. "I do," I repeat.

"Okay," Kishan says softly. "Kells, you remind me a lot of Mika. You are both wonderful mothers."

"Thank you," I say with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put Anik to bed."

As I make my exit, Ren and Kishan start murmuring in Hindi to each other. I smile, and make my way to the nursery. When I got pregnant with Anik, Ren wanted to build a whole new wing onto the house for our kids, but I put my foot down.

Instead, we decided to change Mr. Kadam's room. We all agreed that he would have liked the idea that his surrogate grandson was sleeping in his room, and it was the closet room to Ren and me.

The room still looks the same, but with a crib instead of a bed and a changing table instead of a dresser. We also added a rocking chair next to Mr. Kadam's favorite armchair. I sit in the rocking chair and slowly rock back and forth while humming a lullaby.

I watch as my son slowly drift away from reality, and I'm glad that he doesn't have to deal with demon monkeys or giant sharks to save the one he loves from being a tiger for most of her life. Another tear slips down my cheek as my rocking slows to a stop.

Before Nik was born, I thought that my heart was at full capacity. I couldn't love anything else the way I loved Ren. And I was right, in a sense. I don't love Anik any more than Ren, or even in the same way. It's an all consuming fire, like Ren's, but with Ren it sometimes flares into a passion that can't be ignored, and sometimes, when I am mad at him, it flares up into a fire that I would allow to consume _him_. My love for Anik is like a house fire. It normally is kind, gentle, and warm, but if you stoke it incorrectly, it can burn down everything in its path. I'd always thought that I could never love anyone as much, or even more, as Ren. But then. Then Anik was born. I didn't love Ren any less, and I didn't love Anik more. It was like my garden heart expanded to include bushes of baby's breath as well as bowers of tiger lilies.

If Lokesh kidnapped Anik, I wouldn't hesitate to go after him. I guess it took having a baby to understand that side of Ren. I would absolutely forget Anik to save him. I never told Ren that, because he would be so proud of himself that I would never hear the end of it.

I look down at Anik and see that he is fast asleep. I slowly stand up, and then take him over to the changing table. I make sure that he is asleep, and I place him gently down, and then squat down to get a set of pajamas out. I steadily remove his clothes, change his diaper, and put his pajamas on. As I set him down in his crib, turns over and starts sucking on his thumb. I smile sadly and push a blanket to the far edge of the crib. I consider the blanket for a minute, and then I pull it out of the crib entirely.

I cup Nik's head for a second, and then I go back to the library. Ren and Kishan are still speaking in Hindi, so I walk up behind Ren, but Kishan sees me. He starts to say something, but I shake my head. I tiptoe to right behind Ren as he and Kishan resume talking. My hands dart from my sides and cover his eyes. Ren visibly jumps.

"Oh, man, I am a big fan of this no-tiger-hearing thing," I say I as laugh so hard I have to wipe a tear from my eye. "I have _never_ been able to scare you."

Kishan is also laughing, and Ren is steaming. "Kelsey."

"What?" I look up quizzically at his dark tone.

"Please don't do that."

"Okay. But what's wrong with scaring you?"

"When I was growing up, I was taught to attempt to incapacitate anyone who snuck up on me," he explains gently. "I almost hit you."

"Really? What if you and Kishan were playing?" I ask incredulously.

"We didn't play. We were taught to be polite, charming, and clever, but never to play," he said. "The closet we came to playing were the games of Parcheesi that we played with our parents and Mr. Kadam. And even those were meant to teach us strategy."

"How sad. Now I have two people to teach how to play." Then I gasp. "You grew up before TVs."

"Yes. I think I am catching up on the missed time, though," Ren says with a wry smile. He does watch TV a lot.

"No, that's not what I meant. You never watched Disney movies!" I point out.

"So?" Ren asks with a weird look on his face. "Do I really need to watch Disney movies?"

"Yes!" I shriek.

"Shh," Ren says hurriedly. "Didn't you say Anik was asleep?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," I wince.

"Don't apologize to me. You are going to be the one try to get him back down," Ren says.

"Oh, hush," I say as I swat him on his abnormally large bicep. "He's fine."

Kishan clears his throat. "So, you two, of you would like to focus on the task at hand, I have something else to tell you."

I drop my playful demeanor and sit down next to Ren. Ren sneaks his hand into mine, and I hold on tight.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Well, that's just it. I have no idea. The only thing I remember about the last three hundred years is my personal life, with Ana and the kids, and the fact that we need to retrieve the Holy Book," he says forlornly.

"Kishan, I'm sure you'll remember. At least you remember the one you love. She had the decency to do that for herself, I guess," I say meanly. I still haven't gotten over the fact that she didn't warn me about that.

"Kelsey, she couldn't let Ren remember you but not the other stuff because you were the thing that he had to forget," he points out.

"I know," I grumble. Ren squeezes my hand. "Anyway, continue."

"Well, as I said, I have no idea what is going on any more than you guys, except that Mika left me with one thing," he says ominously.

"What's that?" I ask cautiously. Ren also murmurs something under his breath.

"I remember her saying 'Begin like she did in Oregon,' before I-left, I guess," Kishan recalls.

"Well, that could mean anything. Get a job at the circus, make friends with a tiger, go to India, run off into a jungle with a tiger, meet a weird old shaman who also turns out to be a time-," I freeze. "That's got to be it."

"What's got to be it?" Ren and Kishan ask in unison.

"We have to go see Phet."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting! I've had some trouble with my account, but I'm prety sure I have it figured out. Sorry, for Kishan's explantion last chapter, again, and thanks to TigerWarrior09 for being nice and reviewing every chapter, and bringing the idea that a bit could be offensive to my attention! If you are offended, imagine me on my knees on front of you begging for forgiveness! :) Thnks for reading!**

"Of course," Kishan says, shaking his head. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because I am a genius beyond all compare," I say wryly.

Ren gives a short bark of laughter. "Whatever you say, Kelsey."

"I was kidding."

"I know. So was I," Ren counters.

"Anyway," Kishan interrupts. "You are right, Kells. When do you guys want to go?"

"Well, it depends on if we can bring Anik or not. I could carry him in a Baby Bjorn, but the days of hiking might be difficult for him, and then I would have to have enough food to feed him, and we would have to carry diapers," I list.

Kishan stops me. "Why don't you just leave Anik with Nilima?"

I stare at him incredulously. "Would you have left your first child with someone for days when you haven't left them with anyone other than your parents for more than a few hours?" I say sharply.

"Well, my kids were only non-adults for more than two weeks," he says, "so I wouldn't-"

"What?" I interrupt. "Your kids were never babies?"

"That's not what I said. Up in the 'divine' realm, kids are born as babies, then mature, bodily, about ten times faster than normal children, because the mothers have to go right back to being goddesses, not staying at home with a baby. Mentally, though, the kids are fully functioning at about a week and a half," he explains.

I stare, mouth gaping. "So Anik would be like he was eighty months old, which would be about six years and eight months old," I calculate. "That's-that's-that's _awful_."

"Why?" Kishan asks me. "I never had to worry about kids getting into thing that they shouldn't, or worry about babysitters. We only had to deal with diapers for about a day and a half. Mika and I had the easiest parenting job ever."

"But you never got the moment of their first word, or first crawl, or the normal sequence of milestones. You never got to take your kid to their first day of school and have them cling to you like the vampire monkey things in Kishkindha," I debate.

"And you didn't get to see your wife look like the Madonna while she was holding your first child, who was the size of your shoe," Ren adds.

"Right," I scoff. "The Madonna."

Kishan glares at us. "You might be right. And when our first child born, I did miss those things. But I learned to love the good and overlook the bad. It is a lesson every mortal who became immortal has to learn," Kishan says wisely.

"Okay. So are we leaving Anik here?" I ask sadly.

"No!" Kishan shouts.

"Okay," I say startled at the certainty in his voice. "Why not?"

"Because. I remembered something that Mika said one time. It was 'Kelsey would do well to take her son to my servant,' or something like that," he explains.

"Well that takes care of that, then. When do you want to leave?" I ask.

"As soon as possible," Kishan answers promptly. "At the latest, in the next week."

I exhale. "Well, why don't we just get the rest of this quest done before I have the baby?"

"Because, Kells, you will be hormonal, and you will be more likely to get hurt, because you won't be thinking clearly, and then the baby might get hurt," Ren explains exasperatedly.

I roll my eyes, but I know he has a point. "Fine. Do you want to go to Phet's day after tomorrow?" I suggest.

"That's fine," Kishan says, rolling his shoulders. "Ren?"

"Fine with me," Ren says shortly, and he stalks out of the room.

As he leaves, I stare at the door. "What was that about?" I ask Kishan.

"He's mad because he thinks we just left him out of everything, and he thinks that I only married Ana because she was there and not you, and that I am going to try to get you to leave him and marry me," Kishan explains.

"Jealous idiot," I remark. "I'll go talk to him."

I find Ren in the gym, smashing boards with his head, hands, feet, arms, and legs. I watch him for about three minutes before I walk out onto the floor.

"Ren."

He looks up, frowns, and then he smashes another board. Ren wipes the sweat off his face with the hem of his shirt, and walks over to me. He kisses my cheek, and then waits.

"What?"

"What's wrong?" I ask softly.

"What's wrong? You really need to ask? Maybe you don't know me as well as I thought," he remarks wryly.

"I thought it might be something about feeling left out but that is too immature for you, and then I thought that it might be that you don't want me to want to do this next quest, but then I thought that you know well enough that you don't get to make choices for me," I indirectly chastise.

"_Kelsey_," Ren says angrily. "You are _pregnant_. Do you really think that going to fight who knows what while carrying a child is a good idea?" he vents. I wait for him to get it out of his system. "You really want to help the woman who took my brother and your fiancée, took my memories, you nearly got both your legs bitten off for, and all of us were close to _death_ because of some dumb necklace she needed. You want to help her again, and there is no benefit for us," he says, and he smashes his fist into the wall. Luckily, he doesn't have his tiger strength anymore, so the wall doesn't _completely_ disintegrate, but he does make a nice-sized hole.

I take his hand and brush he plaster off his knuckles, and then kiss the scrapes. "Are you still mad?"

"A little," Ren says. I look into his normally sapphire-blue eyes, but they are now colored like storm clouds.

"Ren, I don't want to help her because I'm hoping that she will do something for us. I want to help her because she needs help. As for everything that you accused her of, I know. I know because nearly every morning I wake up and think hat there are only eight people that I can call family, and there would have been nine if it weren't for her. I think every morning that my heart wouldn't have so many stitches if it weren't for her.

"But I also think that I never would have met you. I think that the man I love most in the world would have died three hundred years before I was born. I realize that I never would have found the father I had in Mr. Kadam, or the sister in Nilima. I never would have found the love I have in you.

"I probably would have had a good life. I most likely would have found someone like Li, and lived in the suburbs and gone on vacations with our two or three kids, and they would have been good kids that played soccer and did some form of martial arts.

"But, because of Durga, I found you. I have a great life. I live in Oregon with my gorgeous husband, and my newborn son. My husband also has a mansion in India, and I am pregnant again.

"Ren, I don't think you realize how utterly _different_ our lives would be with out Durga. Even ignoring the fact that you would be dead, your life would be different. The amulets are so tied into your family's history that you might never have been born if Durga hadn't been created. You wouldn't have been betrothed to Yesubai, because Lokesh would have been dead before Yesubai's mother had been born."

Ren starts to say something, but I stop him. "I'm almost done.

"So I'm not mad at her as often as I am grateful. Because with out her, I would be a completely different person with a completely different life." I smile, and motion that Ren can say something. "I'm done."

Ren smiles his crooked smile and cups my cheek. "That was quite a speech, _rajkumari_." I smile shyly and lean my head into his palm. "And you are right. I shouldn't be mad, but I still am slightly irritated. She should have realized that she need this Book before we had kids."

"Hey," I say. "She's giving up her husband for however long he's going to be here. It's not all peaches and cream for her, either."

"I know," Ren sighs resignedly. "And you still haven't made me that peach pie with whipped cream," he reminds me.

"Alright," I laugh. "I'll go make you one right now, and we can give Anik his first taste of fruit."

"I like that idea," Ren says with a laugh.

We walk back out to the kitchen, and Kishan is playing with Nik.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologize, rushing over to take him from Kishan. "I didn't realize that he would wake up so soon."

"No, it's okay," Kishan says as he hands Anik back to me, but he looks wistful, like he doesn't want to let my son go.

"You can keep him if you want," I say, and give him back. "I thought you might want to go do something else. I'm going to make Ren a pie I promised him, gosh, four years ago at WOU," I explain. "Do you want me to make you one, too?"

"What kind?" he asks.

"I'm making Ren a peach pie with whipped cream, but I can make you what ever you want."

"Can you make cherry pies?" Kishan asks giddily.

"Sure. Do you want whipped cream or cream cheese or something like that on top or bottom?" I ask him.

"No thanks. Just some cherry compote," Kishan says with a grin. "There isn't a decent cherry pie on Mount Kailash. It's awful. No one there can cook, because we keep the Golden Fruit in the middle of our house so we can just think food, but even the Fruit can't make very good pie."

"Really?" I say doubtfully. "The Fruit's food was always delicious down here."

"Mika said that the quality of the food diminishes because it is a magic thing in a magic setting instead of a magic thing in an ordinary setting," he says. "I don't understand it completely yet, because those things take years to comprehend if you are just a god or goddesses 'assistant' then things aren't as clear," he explains. "A full-fledged god or goddess understands everything as soon as they become a deity."

"Lovely," I mutter. "I don't suppose that you brought all the gifts with you, huh?"

"Nope," Kishan grins. "But I did end up with a wonderful cook where I am staying."

Ren comes behind me and slides his hands around my waist. I yelp, and Kishan laughs. "Ren, I don't love her anymore. You don't have to be jealous and act possessive."

Ren glares at him. "I know. She did marry me, you know."

"Yes, I realize that. She came in here to make you a pie. Why are you worried?"

Ren stiffens, but I wiggle out of his arms. "Let me go, Ren." He releases me, and I go into the kitchen and start to get the ingredients out for peach pie. I set two cans of peaches on the counter with a bag of sugar, and then I have to go to the bathroom.

I speed walk across the living room where Ren and Kishan are playing with Nik. Ren looks up at me with questioning eyes.

"Bathroom," I say shortly. He nods, and I continue into the restroom and lock the door. As I bend over to lift the lid of the toilet, I see the blood seeping down the legs of my jeans.

I lightly touch it, and my fingers come away scarlet. I feel a tug downward, and my head starts to spin. The last thing I do before I black out is scream my husband's name.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Nooo! I hate my ideas for a decent plotline... excuse the misery :( Do I even want you to R&R? Mmm, yes, I do!**

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Pain. Not a sharp pain, but an ache. A bruising, excruciating ache that makes me want to writhe and contort my body to placate the monster inside my body. I defy its wishes and force myself to open my eyes. There is a stark white ceiling above me, and I can feel cool, stiff, sheets encasing me. My throat is dry, very dry.

"Water," I manage to croak. Warm hands are holding a cup of cold water to my lips, and I am reminded of those agonizing days in the clamshell. My desiccated lips turn upward into as close to a smile as I can get.

The hands touch the top of my head, and Ren's face comes into view. He smiles slightly at me, and I don't worry, because if Ren can smile, it must not be that bad.

"How do you feel?" Ren asks concernedly.

"It hurts," I say. I sound like a toad.

"Okay. I'll be back in just a second," he says, and leaves the room quickly.

When he comes back, there is a nurse following him, and she has a tray with a plate of food, a cup, and a paper cup filled with pills.

"And how are we today?" she asks in a very cheery tone.

"Not good," I whisper, and Ren takes my hand as he sits in the chair that is right next to my bed.

"Well, that is to be expected," she says crisply as she opens the curtains. I wince at the sudden influx of light "One doesn't-well, I'll let your husband tell you," she finishes. Her voice reminds me of laundry blowing on a breeze on a farm during a warm spring day.

I wonder for a minute, but I realize I am too hungry to think about it. "Can I have something to eat, please?" I moan.

"Just a minute, sweetheart. I need to take your vital signs first, and then we can sit you up and give you some lunch," she says gently.

"Okay," I sigh. Ren's hand tightens on mine, and I remember why I am here. "No. No, no, no, no, no, _no_," I murmur. I turn my head to look at Ren, and I see a sadness that I didn't notice at first. "_Ren_," I plead.

"I know, Kells," he says. He moves so he is sitting on the edge of my bed and gathers me into his arms. I cling to his shoulders and sob weakly.

He whispers words of his native language into my ear, and even though I can't understand him, the sound of the language soothes me. I realize that the pain I initially felt is nothing compared to the pain I feel now.

The nurse has been waiting patiently near the door, and I withdraw from Ren's embrace so she can do her job. Ren carefully lies me back down on the bed, and the nurse walks over to the right side of my bed.

"I am so, _so_, sorry," she whispers. I nod weakly, and don't bother to try to stem the tears carving riverbeds into my cheeks.

She takes my blood pressure, temperature, and checks some of my I.V.s. After making some short notes on her clipboard, she raises my bed to a sitting position, and rolls the tray of food over to me. There is a gray piece of turkey with gray mashed potatoes and grayish-green peas. There is also a Styrofoam container filled with gray-white pudding. The paper cup contains four pills; one white and circular, one gray and oval-shaped, one white and oval-shaped, and one blue and circular.

"Do you need anything else?" she asks nicely. I shake my head, and she quietly makes her exit.

I look at Ren, and his eyes fill with tears. "What happened?" I ask.

"I'm not entirely sure," he starts. "You called me, and I gave Anik to Kishan. I found you on the floor with your jeans soaking up blood. I grabbed you, and Kishan and I left Anik with Nilima. Kishan drove us to the hospital, and you just kept bleeding." Ren takes a shaky breath. "I was really scared, Kells. It was worse than when I found the Kappa on you."

I squeeze his hand to remind him that I am still here. It seems to work, though only minimally. "I'm okay, Ren. Well, I will be, anyway. Keep going."

"I carried you into the Emergency Room, and they gave us priority over everyone because, apparently, Rajaram Industries was much bigger in India than we realized. The doctors did what they could, but after you had been in surgery for two hours, the Chief of Surgery came out and told me there was nothing they could do.

"Kells, I thought he meant you. I thought he meant that you were dying, and I only had a few minutes before you were gone forever." Ren starts sobbing, and I can't do anything to comfort him, because my heart was breaking, too.

He wipes the tears from his eyes, and tries to continue. "I asked if I could see you, and the doctor said that was fine, so he led me into the surgical room. There was an incubator, like they had thought that they might have been able to save the baby, but they couldn't. You were laid out on the table-," Ren breaks off and squeezes my hand extremely tightly.

"The doctor said he was sorry again, that they had done everything they could for the baby, but it was simply too soon. 'The fetus was too small,' he said." Ren looks at the tray of food, and then stops talking. "Eat, Kelsey."

He drops my hand, presumably to make eating easier, but I pick his back up. I eat slowly, and then, courtesy of one of the pills, drift off into my first dreamless sleep in a long time.

~TR~

When I wake up again, Ren is sitting where he was before, and Kishan is sitting on the other.

"What day is it?" I ask.

Ren's eyes snap up to mine. "Wednesday, the twentieth," he answers. "How do you feel?"

"I've been out for three days?" I murmur incredulously. "Wait, the twentieth… Anik's nine months old today."

"Yeah, Kells. He misses you," Kishan says.

"He's nine months old, Kishan, not years. I doubt he even notices," I whisper dryly.

"How do you feel?" Ren asks again.

I smile slightly. "I feel fine. I'm just a little thirsty."

Ren jumps up and pours me a cup of water. He helps me sit up, and I slowly sip it.

"Can I see him?" I ask, referring to Anik.

"Um, no," Ren says apologetically. "No one under thirteen is allowed in this ward."

"Oh," I say sadly. "Do you have a picture of him?"

"Yeah," he says as he pulls out his phone. He pushes a few buttons, and then hands it over to me.

I see my son holding onto a lock of Kishan's hair. Kishan is grimacing, but Nik is grinning, showing is toothless gums. I smile, and then touch my abdomen. Tears start to flow as I think of the sibling that he will never meet.

"Ren, could they tell if it was a boy or girl?" I ask softly.

"No," he whispers. Kishan leaves the room, I guess to give Ren and me some alone time. "They said it was too early."

"Oh," I say sadly. "When can I go home?"

"Soon, _iadala_," Ren says lovingly. "I love you."

"I don't," I realize. "I hate myself. But I do love you, more than anything."

Ren looks alarmed. "Why would you hate yourself?"

"Ren, I can't even carry a child for more than three months."

Ren looks furious. "Kelsey, I refuse to let you blame yourself for this. It was in no way your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault."

"Then how did it happen?" I demand, tears forming in my eyes again.

"I don't know. It wasn't anyone's fault. It happened, and even though we wish it didn't, there is nothing we can do about it. We have a son who is waiting to see you, and if concern for yourself is not enough, I will not let you blame yourself when blame could affect his life," Ren says, very irritated.

"Okay," I say, and Ren looks even more worried than before. "What's wrong?"  
"You aren't arguing with me. I'm going to go talk to the doctor. I promise I'll get you out of here as soon as possible." Ren lets go of my hand, and stalks out of the room.

Kishan comes back in. "How are you, _bilauta_?" he asks lightly.

"I've been better," I joke weakly. "I wish Ren was acting like you."

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Well, you come in here like I just came in for a check-up, but Ren is acting like I was acting in a major car accident where I had to have most of my bone structure reconstructed," I explain.

"No, I'm acting like that on the inside. I just have to pretend, because the doctor said that stress would make you worse. I'll talk to Ren if you want," he offers graciously.

"No, that's okay," I say wearily. "That's just how he is. Would you sit my bed up for me?"

Kishan presses the button until I tell him to stop, and then he touches my forehead. He frowns slightly and says, "You feel hot."

"Ren always thinks that I have a fever, too," I inform him. "I think I just have a naturally high body temperature."

Ren comes into the room, followed by a very tall man.

"Hello, Mrs. Rajaram. I am Dr. Hudson. I am so sorry about your loss. How are you feeling today?" he inquires gently.

"Kind of tired, but other than that, perfectly fine," I say morosely. My emotional well being, on the other hand, isn't doing so well. "Can I go home today?"

"Possibly. I'll need to check your vitals, and do and ultrasound to make sure that everything is okay, but by the way you are acting, I feel very optimistic," he says.

I sigh in relief. He takes my blood pressure, listens to my heart beat from all over my body, and does things that I don't understand. As he leaves, he pins a chart up on the wall near the door, and looks back longingly at Ren and me.

"What was that about?" I ask Ren.

"What was what about?" he asks me with a quizzical look on his face.

"He looked at us weirdly. Like he was jealous or something," I muse.

"Maybe he is. He isn't wearing a wedding ring. Maybe he's just lonely," Ren muses.

I sigh contentedly. "Ren, I want to go home."

"I know, _iadala_," he says, kissing my hair. "I know."

~TR~

Two days later, I am declared healthy, and Ren is wheeling me into the house. I argued the wheelchair as hard as I possibly could, but to no avail. Ren just wouldn't let me walk. As soon as we cross the threshold, Nilima is waiting in the front room with my son. I hold my arms out, and she comes over to me and gives Nik to me.

I sigh happily and hold him tightly. "I love you," I whisper in his ear. Just seeing my baby has healed some of the holes in my inner garden where some of the baby's breath was savagely removed. Ren wheels me into the living room, and I move gingerly out of the chair and onto the couch.

"Okay," I say determinedly. "When are we going to see Phet?" I wait patiently, watching both Ren and Kishan grapple with being kind to me, and wanting to yell at me for wanting to go now.

Kishan gets a hold of himself first. "Kells, I don't think we are going to be able to go for awhile yet. You just had a…miscarriage," all three of us cringe at the word, "and you aren't fully recovered yet."

"Kishan, that's the thing," I say, trying not to sound like I'm whining. "I won't _be_ fully recovered until I have a purpose again." As both Ren and Kishan open their mouths to say something, I get there before them. "A purpose _other_ than getting better."

"Kelsey," Ren says, demanding that I look at him. His blue eyes are captivating, and I know that I am going to lose this battle. "It. Is. Not. Safe," he says shortly. "Even if it wasn't a concern for _your_ safety, which it always is, think of Anik.

"If we took him with us, which Kishan says we have to, I would be constantly worried about you, then you would be mad at me, then Kishan would end up taking care of him, because both of us would be mad and want to be left alone," he says as he sits back in his chair with a satisfied smile, thinking that he won the argument, what with bringing Nik into the equation.

I take a slow, deep breath. I had been racking my brain for a good rebuttal, and Ren just gave me one.

"Ren, if you would cut the over protective crap for a few minutes, you would see what I am saying," I say, my impatience overtaking my common sense. "If you don't worry about me twenty-four seven, there wouldn't be an issue. If you let me worry about me, then we will be fine," I say adamantly.

Ren grumbles and I can tell that he isn't agreeing. I get up carefully because I still feel a little pain, but nothing so bad that a few ibuprofens won't help.

Kishan starts to say something, presumably about the wheel chair, but I silence him with a glare. I take Nik upstairs to play with him in my room _alone_, but Ren gets up from his chair and beats me to the stairs.

I glare at him, and he sighs in response as he takes my free hand.

"Kelsey, I'm not just going to go along with this one. I'm worried about you, and not just that you are physically okay," he says, and I can tell that he is attempting to use the full force of his eyes on me, but I refuse to look at him. His hand tightens on mine

"Dhiren, I need to do something besides just sit around the house," I plead into Nik's head. "I need a purpose in my life to get over it. When my parents died, I was a zombie for months. I was staying with a friend at that point, but when a social worker came to talk to me, I changed. I was working to be a good foster child to Sarah and Mike, and I was trying not to be a huge impact on my friend's life, and one day I looked in the mirror and I didn't look haunted," I say. Ren's hand loosens, and I can feel that he is close to acquiescence. "Ren, I will be okay. I just need a distraction."

My husband takes a deep breath. "_Rajkumari_, I see your point. Truly, I do. But I need you to see mine. I just saw you in the hospital, essentially in a coma for three days." I start to say something, but he holds his hand up. "I didn't stop you, so don't try to stop me. I know that you need something. So I propose that we wait. Not for a long time, but enough time for you to recover a little bit more. Maybe a week or two."

I think about his words. I know that this is a stretch for him, doing something that could potentially be dangerous to me, and I also know that he is trying. I decide to agree, knowing that I won't be able to get anything better out of him.

"Okay," I sigh heavily. "But I want your word that you won't attempt to delay me when I say that it is time to go."

He looks at me solemnly, and promises me with the same oath that he used so long ago when I found his e-mails when he came back to Oregon.

"As the prince of the Mujalaain Empire, I promise you that I will not attempt to delay you when you determine that it is time to go, provided that it is at least a week, preferably two, in the future."

I look down at Nik quickly, who is snuggling into my torso, and look back up at Ren, satisfied. "Thank you," I say simply.

"You're very welcome," Ren says huskily, and picks me up to put Anik in his room, and take us to ours.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I hate that last chapter...TigerWarrior09, here's your Sunil! I'm not entirely sure that I did him justice, but I hope I did! It's a pretty short chapter, and the next one is shorter, but then Chapter 8 will be longer :) R&R!**

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Two weeks later, after lunch, I approach Ren with the idea that it is time to go see Phet.

When I broach the subject, he shuts down quickly. "Are you sure?" he asks dubiously.

"Yes," I say surely. "I feel fine physically and much better emotionally. I need to talk to Kishan about it, but I have a feeling that he will agree with me," I point out.

"Yeah," Ren says looking down with a frown. "I just wish that you hadn't gotten pregnant yet…" he says softly.

Tears well up in my eyes, but I quickly stem the flow. I place my hand on his cheek, and he looks back up at me. "I do, too, but there isn't anything we can do about it now."

"I know," my ethereal husband says miserably. "Kells, with the exception of you, I would have loved that baby more than anything. I just…don't understand," he says, tortured.

I fight the urge to gasp, suddenly realizing why Ren has been so withdrawn from me these past two weeks. He is grieving, which I knew before, obviously, but never to this extent. Ren looks like a man burning at the stake.

"Oh, Ren," I whisper roughly, and wrap my arms around his waist. "I am so, so sorry that I didn't see you hurting this badly before. I am so sorry that I didn't even think to see of you were okay. I am so sorry that you felt like you had to pretend to not be hurting for me. I am so sorry that I didn't do what I should have when…it…happened, and comforted you. I am so sorry that I didn't-"

"No, Kelsey. It's not your fault. You were grieving too," he says, stopping his tears and stroking my hair. "I was dealing with it, until you wanted to go out to see Phet again. I'll be okay." I start crying again at the realization that our roles are suddenly flipped. I was comforting him not two minutes ago, and now I am ruining his shirt with my tears.

Ren quickly realizes that I'm not going to be able to get my sobs under control here, so he cradles me in my arms, and gently carries me up the stairs. He lays me on the bed and crawls in next to me, and then I slip into unconsciousness while pillowing my head on my husband's chest.

~TR~

When I wake up again, Ren is curled into himself, facing away from me. The clock on my nightstand says that it is four o'clock in the morning, but I know I won't be able to fall back asleep. After four years of waking up at six to make Ren's breakfast, going to bed at seven, apparently, doesn't help with sleeping in.

I carefully slither off of our bed to go downstairs and make a small snack. I quietly check on Nik, who is sleeping soundly. I feel a pang of regret, knowing that I have neglected my son in the past few weeks, and though I know that no one will blame me for it, I blame myself.

I shut the door quietly, and pad down the hallway to the stairs. As I make my way down to the kitchen, I become more cautious, because the light is already on, and I know that no one leaves the lights on.

I take silent, deep breaths to calm myself and look around for a weapon. The closest I can get is a book lying on the side table by the couch, so I grab it and raise it to prepare myself.

When I enter the kitchen, I nearly knock Sunil out with the book when he speaks.

"Gah!" I sputter, after he says hello. I drop the book, and try to control my blush. "Sorry, Sunil. I wasn't expecting to see you."

"I can see that," he says with a cooked grin, gesturing his coffee mug at the fallen book.

"Yeah, well, living in a constant fairytale for two years changes you a bit."

"I couldn't agree more," he says with another smile. "So, Kelsey, how are you?" I know we haven't had much chance to talk this time around, with Kishan showing up and…" He trails off, I assume because he is afraid of setting me off. I got quite the reputation for hormonal pregnant lady when I came over here while I was carrying Anik.

"It's okay, Sunil. I'm going to have to get over it at some point, might as well start now," I shrug nonchalantly.

He gets up suddenly. "Can I get you anything to drink?" he says, deftly changing the subject.

I smile, and let him. "Some cocoa would be nice, thank you," I answer him.

He swiftly pours milk into a saucepan, and finds chocolate powder. I watch him in wonder. The last time I was here, he still couldn't figure out how getting "icy cubes" worked. He notices me watching him, and jokes, "Now that I have a better excuse to hang around Nilima more, I've been picking up more things around the kitchen."

He brings me mug of steaming hot chocolate with a cookie from Nilima's secret stash. I wrap my hands around it and inhale the sweet smell of the rich chocolate.

"So, Kells," he says, leaning forward. "Anything?" he asks, because he knows that I confide in him quite a bit.

I take a deep breath. I tell Sunil things that I don't tell Ren, just because Ren overreacts, or blames himself for me thinking them. "Sunil, I'm scared. I can't tell Ren, because he would take that to mean that we shouldn't go see Phet and help your sister, but I know that we need to, and I know it's the right thing to do. But there were so many times that they needed to be tigers, otherwise we might not have survived, and I need my fire power, and then if one of us dies, Nik won't have a parent or an uncle, and I'm just so, I don't know, _worried_." I finish, and I realize that I am crying again. "I'm sorry, Sunil. I didn't mean to start crying."

Sunil gets out of his chair, and wraps his arms around me. If it was anyone other than him, I would have been worried about him misunderstanding my clinging to him, but I've seen him around Nilima, and I know that he is just as in love with her as I am with Ren.

"Shh, Kells, it's okay. If I know my sister, and I do, well, even though I haven't seen her for a few years, she will take care of you. Remember how she called you 'little sister'?" After I nod, he continues. "She always wanted a sister, and she never called anyone else sister. She cared for you, Kelsey, very deeply. And I'm sure that she still does," he reassures me, retaining a certain quality to his voice, like Mr. Kadam, Ren, and Kishan, that could only have been acquired in a different century.

"But, Sunil, she has tried to protect us before, and just hasn't looked at the unrelated ramifications. Like when she took Ren's memories of me, she didn't think about the fact that I was heartbroken for months, and then I was torn between Ren and Kishan because I had time to think about Kishan like that while Ren was trying to stay away from me. I can't ignore that she might mean best, but doesn't _do_ best," I moan, anguished, being able to finally give voice to my fears.

"Kelsey," Sunil says shortly. "Look at me."

I eventually turn my face up to his. He holds my chin in place and says, "If you hadn't gone through that whole rigmarole with Kishan," he says slightly proudly, because he used a little known English word, even if no one but me uses it now. "If you hadn't tried to forget Ren and be with Kishan, how would you know that it is Ren that you are supposed to be with?" I open my mouth to say something, but he resumes talking before I can make a sound.

"If you had never considered the idea that Kishan might be better for you, where would you be now? You would always be able to wonder if you would have been happier with Kishan than you are with Ren. And the question still remains that Ren may have stayed with my sister if he thought that was best for you, and would keep you safe, because he had never tried to live without you, or you without him."

I stay silent at his unassailable logic. I ponder his words for a moment, and then stand up. "Thank you, Sunil. I needed that. I have been getting mad at her for awhile, and I need someone to put it in perspective for me, and Ren can't do it because he is madder at her than I am," I say with a wry smile. "By the way, what are you doing up so early?"

He shrugs, "Oh, when I was in the army, we were trained to wake at the slightest sound, and it was really windy, so I couldn't go back to sleep. What about you?"

I laugh. "Ren and I cried together for a bit, and then he put me in bed, then left. That was at about seven, and I normally go to bed at nine and wake up at six, so I got my nine hours. I'm going to try to stay up until nine today, so I don't start waking up this early every day," I laugh.

Sunil laughs with me, and we chat about nothing for another twenty minutes, and then I store my mug on the dishwasher, and go back to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Apologies many times over! School caught up to me and I haven't had time to write, hence the short chapter again...but school is almost done, and I'll have more time to write then... maybe :) And PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEAAAAAASEEEEEE review! I know that you guys in the Philippines and India and Slovakia and all those other super cool countries are reading... and the happier I am the faster I write :). R&R the baby chapter :)**

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The next few days are spent in making plans for our upcoming trek through the jungle. Kishan has made abundantly clear that Nik must be brought along, so that has been a source of tension between Ren and Kishan, and me a little bit, too. Ren thinks that it would be a foolish risk to take, and I don't really want to subject a now ten month old to a fairy-tale that was hard for me to handle when I was eighteen.

The day Kishan had brought that fine point back up was interesting…

~TR~

"Absolutely not!" Ren had said in a sort-of whisper, as we were all standing outside of sleeping Nik's door. "He is not coming with us! If I don't want my adult wife to go, why would I allow my ten month old son to go?"

Kishan's face hardened and I could tell that he wasn't happy with the way things were turning out. "Ren, I've told you. Nothing will happen to any of us on this leg of the journey. I can't guarantee the real quest, but we don't have to bring Nik on that, I don't think," he said uncertainly.

"Exactly. You _think_," Ren said disgustedly. "You have no idea what you are doing!"

I had originally decided to stay out of this one, but Ren and Kishan were getting into it, so I had to step in.

"Boys!" I hissed, knowing that neglecting to call them men would irritate them. "First of all, if you are going to argue, do it somewhere else, second of all, don't argue. Ren, the only bad thing that ever happened when we went to see Phet is when I hit my head on the rocks, which was my own fault. We are going, and I'd rather have Nik with us than leave him with virtual strangers. At least we will be able to keep an eye on him. And I bet that Phet would like to see him as well. At this point, Dhiren," I said, pausing to take a breath, "I really don't care about your opinion."

Ren's eyes changed from blue to gray as he tried to reign in his temper. Over the years, I haven't been on the receiving end of his temper too much, other than when we were on the quests, because Ren hates it when he gets mad at me. The few times it has happened since we got married, the next few days were heaven. He pampered me, and didn't let me do anything for myself, which was kind of nice, and he knew exactly when to stop before it became annoying. Maybe I should let him get mad at me…

The change in Ren's demeanor broke me out of my reverie. He slumped in defeat, but straightened and walked away. I looked after him fondly, and then looked at Kishan.

"This whole…ordeal…has been harder on him than I think any of us realize," I had apologized.

Kishan smiled weakly. "I know," he said sadly. "Before I stayed with Mika, I always wanted to take your pain away. Now I know that had I done that, comforted you as thoroughly as I wanted to, things would be so much different. It is so weird, knowing everything that was and would have been, had certain things been set into motion. For example, if I had told you about the baby I saw in the Grove of Dreams, you would have chosen me, and been much more comfortable with the choice. I'm just glad that that didn't happen," he'd smiled.

I ran my fingers over my necklace with Kishan's ruby on it. He noticed, and held my hand to his lips to kiss my fingers.

"I love you, _bilauta_. Like a sister."

"I love you, too, Kishan. Just don't tell Ren I said that. He would never forgive you," I said with a forced smile.

He laughed, and that was the end of the conversation. For now.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Full lengthish chapter! Full lengthish chapter! I feel really bad about the two chapters before this because they were either less than 1k words or barely so... now I give you a long(ish) read! R&R!**

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Kishan and I finally get Ren to shut up, so we decide to leave the next morning. Nilima helps us pack up the Jeep with food, clothes, and diapers. Lots of them.

We leave just after lunch, which eliminates one meal we need to pack.

"Why couldn't you have brought the Golden Fruit with you, Kishan?" I complain jokingly as we carry another box of freeze dried food out to the car.

"Kells, I wasn't planning on feeding an army. I just thought we would need one box of food, at most. Not three," he responds, twitching his head in the direction of the three cardboard boxes full of sustenance.

"I know, right? I mean, I love Ren and all, but he does go a bit overboard, doesn't he?" I say just loud enough for Ren, who is coming out the door with a box of something, to hear.

"Yes, _iadala_. I am going overboard bringing a week's worth of food for a three day journey with two grown Indian men and a nursing woman. We go through food fast at our house with just the two of us. How long do you think this will last adding Kishan into the mix?" he says. He throws the box into the back of the Jeep, and comes up behind me to grab my waist.

"Hey!" I shriek. He puts me down only to pull me into a sweeping kiss, and I forget about going on another quest, and the fact that I should be pregnant right now, and that my brother-in-law magically showed up from the past. All I remember is the fact that I have been forgetting about my husband in the conflicting feelings of joy that Kishan is back and the grief for my child.

We don't move for a long time. When Ren pulls away and wraps me in his arms I notice that we are in the middle of the jungle, and it vaguely registers in my mind that I don't remember getting here.

I melt into his embrace, and for moment I am eighteen, outside the restaurant in India, trying to resist Ren's pleas to stay. I reach up on my tiptoes to kiss him one more time.

"We should probably go back."

Ren's arms tighten. "I don't want to."

"I don't either," I tease. "I said we should, not that I want to."

He sighs and his fingers fiddle with the tail of braid.

"I love you. So, so, _so_ much, Kelsey," he says seriously.

"I know. And I love you more."

He sighs. "Impossible. But you are right. Let's go."

Our hands find each other, almost subconsciously, as we walk back to the driveway, and see Kishan grinning at us.

"Couldn't help yourselves, huh?" He says, waggling his eyebrows.

"Well, Kishan, we know that you still have tiger hearing, so we've been trying to be considerate, but it's hard when you're married. You should know; you have fifty-seven kids, right?" Ren teases his younger brother.

"Fifty-two actually," Kishan says jovially.

I shake my head. "I think you are trying to tease us. There is no way that any woman would agree to having _fifty-two_ kids.

"Kells, it wasn't in a normal human life span. It averages about one kid every six to eight years. The previous child is a grown human by the time their sibling is born."

"Still," I grumble. "It's not natural."

"Kells, what part of my life has _ever_ been natural? Even yours and Ren's. You were eighteen when your 'normal' life ended, Ren was twenty-one, and I was nineteen," he says seriously.

"I know. Have you guys ever wondered what would happen if we were all normal. I mean, like you guys were born in this century, and we were all human, no special powers or anything… What would have happened?" I wonder.

Ren lovingly kisses the tip of my nose. "I don't care. It didn't happen."

I sigh. "Thank goodness."

~TR~

Twenty minutes, we are all packed, and Kishan gets in the driver's seat as Ren and I slide into the backseat, on either side of Nik's car seat. As Kishan navigates the Jeep on the windy, narrow, pathway out of the property, I remember that he used to be a horrible driver.

"Hey, Kishan?" I call up while fiddling with my son's fingers.

"Yeah?" he responds.

"Where did you learn to drive?"

He laughs. "When I rebuilt India with Mika, eventually I had to tell her about cars. As soon as I built one, I just knew how to drive it," he shrugs.

"If only you had had that skill when you learned how to drive here," I say, sighing heavily. "Mr. Kadam never would have had to worry about his Rolls," I tease.

"Yeah, you would have thought that Kishan was a serial killer of little girls and the Rolls was Kadam's eight year old daughter, from the way he kept Kishan away from it," Ren says, joining in on the teasing.

"Hey!" Kishan protests indignantly. "I wasn't _that_ bad."

Ren snorts. "Yeah, you were. Do you _not_ remember running into the fountain?"

"That was _one_ time," he says indignantly. "And it was almost five years ago. Why do you still remember that, anyway?"

"Because it was one of the only moments I have ever seen Kadam scared and furious. Oh, I have to battle the most evil man any of us have ever heard and die? No problem. Kishan is driving my Rolls? Oh, no. Not the Rolls," Ren says, pretending to shake with fear. "He almost did _what_?" Ren is now pretending to be enraged. "Into the _fountain_? He is never going to drive _again _on this property."

By now, tears are streaming down my face I am laughing so hard. "Stop! Stop, Ren! I can't breathe!"

He looks over at me to make sure that I'm having an allergic reaction to something, and then he keeps going.

"Oh, there's a new model of the Roadster coming out? I simply _must_ buy it to add to my collection of sports cars in the garage!" he continues.

Bu this time, Kishan is in hysterics as well, and tells Ren to stop because he's going to crash the car.

"If you insist, Kishan," Ren says, keeping his impression up for one more quip.

I wipe the tears from my face, and watch Nik. He gurgles in laughter, and I freeze. I look up at Ren, and he has the same look on his face.

Kishan notices our silence, and looks back at us in the rear-view mirror.

"Is something wrong, you guys?"

Tears threaten to spill down my cheeks again, but not from laughter.

"Kells? What's wrong?" Kishan asks, more worried now than before.

"He's never laughed before…" I whisper.

Kishan, still having his tiger powers, hears me. "Really? That was the first time?"

I nod slowly, but keep my eyes locked on Nik. He toothlessly grins at me, and I smile back.

"Was that funny?" I coo at him, now that I am over my shock. "Was Uncle Kishan funny?"

He giggles some more, and Kishan is silent with us this time. I can feel the hole in my heart from my other baby healing a little bit more with every breath I hear Nik take, but I know it will never heal completely.

I push those thoughts from my mind, and look back at my son in his car seat.

I look up at Ren, and his face is lit up like a little boy in a candy store.

"I can't take him out, can I," I say sadly.

"We're almost there, so if you can hang on for two minutes, you can take him out," Kishan calls back.

I sigh, and Ren takes my hand that is not occupied with Nik's toes.

"If I didn't love you so much, I would fight you to get him first," he teases.

"And you would lose," I grin.

Kishan takes the car into a lapse in the thick jungle, and I don't waste any time in pulling Nik out of the car seat.

I hug him to my chest, and Ren comes up behind me. He hugs me from behind and then smoothes Nik's locks down with his left hand.

I look at Ren's ring; I picked it out, and kept his family in mind. Before I'd gone to the jeweler, I had checked with Ren to see if there was anything he wouldn't stand for, and asked Nilima to translate something into Hindi for me. The ring itself is a wide, brushed silver band, and on the inside, the words "_Meri hridaya rehna tumhaara dwaara vah shataabdi_," meaning "My heart is yours through the centuries," are inscribed. I thought that it would mean more to Ren if I inscribed it in Hindi instead of English, since I am the only person he is close to that isn't from India.

Ren and I are so focused on our son, that when Kishan says that he has everything from the Jeep unpacked, we are shocked.

"But we just got out, like, five minutes ago," I say, confused.

"Kishan smiles sadly. "You three have been standing there in your own world, _bilauta_. I figured that it would be easier to do it myself that have Ren grumble at me for the rest of the trip." He says this with an easy tone, but his eyes look so miserable, and I think I know why. I hold me son tightly, and take a deep breath.

"Kishan, did you hear your kids' first laugh?" I ask gently.

Kishan looks down. "No. They matured so fast that, while it was technically their first laugh, it was about a week after their birth, when they looked to be almost a year old and we had known that they would grow up fast, so it wasn't anything special. We never had the joy when your child smiles at you for the first time, because immediately, well, almost immediately, at least, after their smile, they would start laughing, and then they would start telling jokes. They matured so quickly that the sacredness of their first word was overshadowed by the sacredness of their first sentence, and then that was overshadowed by a speech. None of our kids know how to stop talking," Kishan says, smiling a bit at the end after wiping a tear from his cheek.

"I know I said that I had learned to take what joy I could, and then forget about the sadness, but it's hard. Especially with Anik being so young, and having his first laugh, and you three being such a close family. I know that I am just as close with my kids, and I know it isn't all perfect for you guys either, but Ren was right. I never got to see my wife in a rocking chair holding our child, looking like the Madonna. Almost directly after giving birth, Mika had things to do, and handed the child over to one of our servants.

Kishan looks up, and stops talking. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burden you with that." He picks up the largest backpack, which contains our tent, and stalks off in the direction of Phet's hut.

"No, Kishan!" I call after him, but he doesn't reappear.

I look over at Ren, pleading with my eyes. He nods tersely, and then picks up the other backpack while I hurriedly strap Nik into the carrier that goes across my torso. I sling the light backpack containing baby supplies over my back, and we dash into the jungle, not two minutes after our brother.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Finally! I feel so accomplished, posting a long chapter again! The Quest begins! Sort of. The next chapter will be the conversation with Phet, and then chapter 11 will be the Beginning! I'll try to get that far before I leave for camp next Friday, because I'll be gone for a week with no Internet. How will I survive?! Or would you rather I wait to post the Beginning until I get back? Review to tell me! If you can't tell, the italicized part is word for word out of Tiger's Voyage(****_That_**** took forever to type out...) Long live Colleen Houck! R&R!**

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After an hour and a half of tramping through the jungle we finally stop for a break. Kishan leans against a tree and continues his apparent pact of silence toward us as Ren removes the swaddling device from me and straps it onto himself.

Once I am freed from the heavy device, I walk slowly over to Kishan.

I place my hand on his bicep and he pulls away.

"Kishan," I say softly. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it. It's not important anyway," He says sullenly.

I sigh, wondering when he became like this.

"Kishan, I know that's not true. Now tell me, otherwise I'll sic Ren on you, and you won't know what hit you," I say forcefully.

Kishan exhales through his lips, making a noise like a horse.

"Fine. I'm jealous. I didn't mean to be, and I always thought that I was happy with the life I had on Mount Kailash with Mika and the kids, but now I'm not. I wish that my kids stayed babies for months, not days. I wish that I had the joy of hearing my child's first laugh and anticipating that moment for longer than twelve hours. I am very, very, _very_, jealous of you and Ren. Happy?" Kishan vents.

"Yes, I am, actually. I thought it might be something serious," I say harshly. "I'm sorry that you aren't happy with the life you chose. I'm sorry that you are jealous of your family's happiness, which should be yours as well. I'm sorry that your goddess wife and fifty-four children aren't enough for you. I'm sorry that every day I miss my baby that was never born, I will have you to think of, because you weren't happy with your _immortal_ life," I snarl. "But, Sohan Kishan Rajaram, if you think for even a _second_ that every person who knows you wouldn't rather you be here than there, I will _personally_ relive every moment of depression I've had since you left. _Because_ you left," I say even more harshly.

Kishan looks horrified. I know if I turn around, Ren will have a very similar look on his face, but I need to snap Kishan out of this.

"But, Kishan, that doesn't matter. I am going to pretend that you never left, and since you don't remember anything that will be of use to us for this quest, I suggest you do the same." At Kishan's terrified face, my tone softens. "Kishan, we _need_ to be able to talk to each other. Even if you can't pull it together for yourself, think of Nik. If we aren't all at the best we can be, he might be welcoming home one less person than he said goodbye to."

Kishan nods slowly. "Kells, that was really mean, but I needed to hear it. I'm sorry for-"

"Stop," I say, holding my hand up. "I know. It wasn't your fault; I just wanted you to get out of it. I know that it hurts, but we can deal with it later, okay? Maybe Phet can help," I tell him, and embrace him tightly at the same time. "Really. I just want you to be happy."

"Could've fooled me," Ren says grumpily from behind me.

I glare at him. "Doing the right thing for someone you love doesn't always mean being nice, you know."

"Yes, I do," Ren frowns. "Are you still holding that against me?"

I whirl around in surprise. "What?" I gasp. Then I remember.

Even after all these years. After a wedding, two children, though one we will…never know, and spending three years together, those memories still haunt me.

_"I want us to break up."_

_My jaw dropped. "You what?"_

_"I don't want us to be together anymore."_

_I couldn't think of anything to say except, "Why?"_

_"I can't… it won't… we shouldn't… look, I have my reasons, okay?"_

_"No. Just saying you have reasons isn't good enough."_

_Something flickered in his eyes. Pain. But it disappeared quickly and was replaced by gritty fortitude. "I don't love you anymore."_

_"I don't believe you. You'll have to do better than that. I read your wishes at the Star Festival. Remember?"_

_He grimaced. "I forgot. But you should believe me anyway. It'll be easier for us both that way. Kishan has feelings for you, and it would be better if you were with him."_

_"You can't tell me who to love and who not to love."_

_"You already love him."_

_"I love _you_, you big idiot."_

_"Then stop."_

_"I can't just turn my feelings on and off like a water spigot"_

_"That's why I won't be around anymore. I'll avoid being near you. You'll never be near me."_

_"Oh, I see. You think that not seeing you will fix everything?"_

_"Probably not. But it will help."_

_I folded me arms and looked at him with utter incredulity. "I can't believe you are telling me to be with your brother. It's really not like you. Please tell me what I did to cause this."_

_"You didn't do anything."_

_Ren spun around, leaned over, and placed his elbows on the railing. He didn't say anything for a minute so I walked over near him and leaned over too. Eventually, he said quietly, "I couldn't save you."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I couldn't. I tried to do CPR, but I became violently ill. I couldn't save you. Kishan had to intervene, and in my jealously and frustration I pushed him away. I almost let you die because I didn't want him to touch you. That's when I realized I had to let you go."_

_"But, Ren-" _

_I reached out to touch his arm. Ren look down at my hand and stepped away._

_I stiffened and said, "I'm sure your exaggerating."_

_"No, I'm not." He turned away from me as if he was going to leave._

_"Alagan Dhiren Rajaram, you stay right here, and you listen to me!"_

_He spun back to me, angry._

_"_No_. Kelsey. No! I can't _be_ with you! I can't _touch_ you. And I can't _save_ you." He gripped the railing so hard his knuckles turned white. "You need a man who can do those things. That man isn't me. It's been months, Kelsey. I haven't found the trigger. I probably never will, and you'll waste your entire _life_ waiting for me! Kishan needs you. Kishan wants you. Be with him."_

_"I don't want to. I choose _you_, and I don't care about those other things. I'm sure we'll figure something out. _Please _don't push me away because of this."_

_"It's for the best, Kelsey. We know what's best for you."_

_"No, you don't! _You're_ what's best for me!"_

_"I'm _not_. And I'm _not_ discussing this with you anymore. I've made my decision."_

_"Oh! You've made your decision, have you? Well, this may come as a shock to you, but you don't make decisions for me! The two of you can plan and scheme all you want, but you can't force me to feel differently about you than I do!"_

_Ren's shoulders fell and he said resignedly, "It won't be force. Your feelings for him will come naturally, and at the same time your feelings for me will diminish."_

_"Not _bloody likely!_" I started panicking. Ren was serious. He had never backed off when he set his mind to something before, and I wasn't making any headway at talking him out of this. I began hyperventilating. Tears trickled down my face. "Nothing about this feels natural. I can't believe you're willing to give me away."_

_"Don't be stubborn about this, Kelsey."_

_I laughed wetly with sardonic humor. "I don't think I'm the one being stubborn here."_

_He sighed. "We need to face the fact that our relationship is dysfunctional. Why put us both through the pain when it's not necessary? You can be happy with Kishan and… I'm sure I can find someone else too."_

I'm sure he could. All he'd have to do is walk down any street in the world and there would be hundreds of "someone elses" lined up for blocks.

_I inhaled shakily. "But there isn't anyone else I want.. I don't want us to break up."_

_Ren laughed cynically. "I knew you wouldn't listen to reason." He sighed. "Fine. Let's do this the hard way." He squared his shoulders, and his mouth turned up cruelly. "People break up all the time, Kelsey. Just accept it. The fact of the matter is, it was nice for a while, but it's time I moved on. No forgotten memories could possibly be worth all this… pain. All this drama."_

_"I still don't believe you. I know you still care about me."_

_"How can I care about a girl when my gut twists in agony every time I touch her?"_

_"You never complained before."_

_"You're the only girl I've ever kissed and a kiss that can only last a few seconds just isn't worth it."_

_"You know what I think? I think you are feeling extremely guilty about the CPR thing, and you're trying to protect me. You've always been overprotective, so now you think breaking up with me will save me. You've got some kind of hyperactive Superman complex, and your favorite pastime is to sacrifice our being together for my safety."_

_He grunted and ran a hand through his hair. "Apparently I'm not making myself clear. I… don't… _want_… you. Not anymore. I'm not even sure I want a girlfriend right now. Maybe I'll just play the field for a while, break a few hearts. I think I'll try a redhead. Or a blonde next time."_

_"I'll believe it when I see it." _

_"Is that what it will take? You have to see me with another woman before you believe I'm serious?"_

_I folded my arms. "Yes."_

_"Fine. I'll be happy to accommodate you."_

_"Oh… no… you… won't! If I see you with another woman, I will personally strangle you, Tarzan!"_

_"I don't want to hurt you, Kelsey, but you are forcing me. I'm serious about this. We don't belong together, and until you accept that, you won't see me." Ren turned to leave._

_"You coward. Hiding from a girl half your size."_

_He spun back around. "I'm no coward, Kelsey. You once left me saying that we didn't belong together. That we didn't… match. I've come to believe you're right. _You_ are not for _me_. I'll find someone else. Someone," he worked his jaw, "prettier. And a little less mouthy would be good too."_

_I gasped softly as fat, wet teardrops fell to my cheeks._

_Seeing me falter, Ren moved in for the kill. "I'm sure we'll both be able to move on quickly. Maybe even within the week."_

_I turned around to hide my emotional turmoil, still speechless. _

_"The good news for you is, you already have a backup boyfriend or two. You have it easy. Men seem to flock to you like bears to honey, so count your blessings."_

_I wrapped my arms around my stomach trying to contain the pain. Sucking in a shaky breath, I asked quietly, "So is that it?" This is goodbye? We won't mean anything to each other anymore? You won't even be my friend?"_

_"That's right. I'll help on the tasks to break the curse, but other than that, don't expect to see me. And when Durga's tasks are complete, I'll just disappear. You'll never see me again."_

_He took a few steps away, but stopped when I softly said, "Ren?"_

_He sighed. "Yes?"_

_I turned and took a few steps so I could face him. I looked at his handsome face, searching for a sign that he would end this foolishness. His visage was set hard as stone. There would be no changing his mind, no relenting. I tried another tack, and threatened, "If you leave me again… there won't be another chance."_

_Another fat tear plopped onto my cheek. He took a step closer, reaching out his finger to the teardrop. Our eyes met, and my heart thumped horribly in my chest. I loved him so much it hurt. _ How could he do this to us?_ It felt wrong. These words he was saying were false. I knew it in my mind, but my heart was in pain regardless. _My_ Ren would never say these things to me, but was he still _my_ Ren? Had he really changed that much?_

_Ren studied the teardrop as he rubbed it between his finger and thumb. He looked up, his blue eyes hardened sapphires. "I won't need another chance. I won't be seeking you out again."_

A tear slips down my cheek as I realize how perfectly I remember that day. I don't remember every second of our relationship before or after that, though I do remember a lot of it. But I could quote, word for word, what he said to me that day. More tears fall as I think about Ren's ridiculous bid to keep me safe. I turn away from him as I whisper, "No, I'm not. I forgave you the day you asked me to marry you, and I honestly forgot. Just… let me go ahead, okay? Give me Nik," I say, as I reach my arms out for him. I kiss Ren softly, and I can feel his anguish over leaving me so long ago.

"Ren, I'll be okay. Just let me calm down for a few minutes. My emotions are so all over the place, I might still be pregnant," I smile sadly.

Ren tries, really, he does. He smiles, and I can tell that he doesn't want me to see his pain. But I know him too well. I, and maybe Kishan too, am the only one who is able to see the agony in his eyes, behind the crystalline blue of his eyes.

His hand shakes as it lifts mine to his lips, and I smile weakly at the gesture.

"Ren," I say gently. "Look at me."

His sapphire eyes meet my brown ones, and I hold his gaze for a moment before I speak.

"I love you. Forever. Always. Through the centuries."

He smiles, a bit more normally this time.

"As I love you, _iadala_," he says. He hands me Nik, and does something I never thought he would do, when we aren't fighting. "Go ahead. I'll be a ways behind you; you won't have to worry about any animals attacking you, or Kishan hearing you, since he still has tiger-senses." He let me go.

~TR~

Fifteen minutes later, Nik is cradled to my chest, and my tears are slowly soaking his beautiful brown hair.

"Oh, Nik," I say softly. "This isn't at all what it was like before. I mean, your uncle was still ridiculously blaming himself, but your father would never have let me walk away and not be in his immediate sight.

"I would never have been able to calm either one of them down. Your father would have been much too angry for me to even contemplate trying. Ki-your uncle would never have listened. He would have kept on blaming himself, and wouldn't have calmed down.

"I just…don't understand. Why now? Why me? Why _us_? Why _everything_? Why couldn't your dad have just been born now, and gone to my high school, and we could have met then, and then we could live normally, without all this curse-breaking drama, and… all of it," I moan to no one in particular.

"Because you wouldn't be same person, Kahl-see," A voice says from behind me.

"Wha-?" I gasp, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Phet?" I ask in amazement. "I thought we weren't anywhere near your… place…"

He chuckles. "Ah, yes, Kahl-see. I transport my things. I knew you come back, and I knew who come with you," he gestures toward my son as I grin, "so I come closer to main road."

"Thank you, Phet," I smile. "That was a much easier hike than before. Though, I must say, I was looking forward to the waterfall."

"It is not far a journey from new home to waterfall you talk of," Phet says, jumping ahead.

"Wait, Phet, I have a question. If you can appear in any form you want, why are you in this form, instead of rich business owner in Dubai, or something?" I ask curiously.

Phet cackles. "First, Kahl-see, may I?" he asks, gesturing to Nik.

"Oh, of course!" I say quickly, and gently pass Nik to Phet.

"I told you see you in a happier time," he says while clicking his tongue at Anik. "You think I mean with Durga when you fight demon."

I think back to that technically "happier" time, because I was resigned to my fate, and smile. "I'm glad I was wrong. But you didn't answer my question."

"Because, Kahl-see. What I tell you first time we meet is true. I a humble servant of Durga," he grins, with fewer teeth than when I last saw him.

"Okay. I like that, actually. It's nice to know that there aren't only power hungry people in the world."

"Kahl-see, aren't many 'power hungry' people in world. Many good people. Good people not known for special reasons. Maybe not like fame. Maybe not like people with much money, and good people no wanting to be like other people. You not liking having much money, true?"

I ponder Phet's words. "You're right. I know that was not the most pressing issue we have to talk about, and you didn't really have to answer it," I smile. "Thank you."

Phet walk along, still holding my son, and I follow him.

"Phet, how will Ren and Kishan know to not go to where you used to live?" I ask, remembering that they aren't with us.

"I see them first. I tell them direction of my home, and they wait for us," Phet says, rocking Nik gently.

"Oh," I say gratefully. "Thank you."

"Is nothing," Phet says joyfully. "I very happy all of us together again."

"I am too," I say with a grin. "And I am much happier than before. Well… kind of," I say, my elation at finally starting this new quest fading a little at the thought of my lost child.

"I not trying to say it do not matter, Kahl-see, but there are many childs future," Phet says nicely. "I know this." His finger tapping the side of his head makes me laugh, and the fact that he knows about my… miscarriage even though I didn't tell him doesn't even register as we walk into his new home.

~TR~

Kishan and Ren are seated at the table by the stove, and Ren jumps up as soon as the flap to the tent opens.

"_Iadala_, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad," he says as he wraps me in his embrace," he says softly. "I shouldn't have let you leave, either."

I laugh. "No, Ren. I'm glad you did. I got to talk to Phet for a bit and hash things out with a nine-month old."

"Speaking of, where is he?" Ren asks, noticing that Nik isn't perched on my hip.

I incline my head over towards Phet and Ren notices the old man cackling at our son's antics.

"So, Phet," I begin to get his attention, pulling out of my husband's arms reluctantly. "What do we need to know?"

"Phet looks up from playing with Anik on the floor with Kishan, and smiles sadly. "Can wait, Kahl-see. Talk now, talk tomorrow, no difference."

I feel confused for a moment, and then I notice the look on Phet's face as he plays with Nik.

"Did you ever have kids, Phet?" I ask as I sit down on the floor and yawning as Ren sits next to me and takes my hand.

"No, Kahl-see. Too busy doing Durga's work, and time-traveling," he jokes.

I suddenly feel exhausted, and Phet notices my drooping eyelids.

Phet hands my son to me, and I automatically coo at him.

"Sleep now, tigers. Sleep, Kahl-see, Durga's chosen one. Put baby tiger to rest, and rise happy in morning."

With that, I stand up slowly, and walk outside to feed Nik, and Ren follows me, lacing his fingers through mine.

"_Mujhe tumse pyarhai, iadala_," Ren says softly, gazing into my eyes and making me forget that I'm a not particularly beautiful woman who just miscarried this perfect man's second child. I feel like the most gorgeous supermodel on the planet.

"_Mujhe tumse pyarhai_, Dhiren Rajaram," I say as we lean our foreheads together.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I'm baaaaack! I know I said I would try to post one or two chapters before I left, but I realized that was pretty much physically impossible when it was the morning before I left and I was barely halfway done with the first chapter that was supposed to be posted... oops :) Does anyone have any information about general release dates for Tiger's Dream and The Movie? More specific than the year? And yes, "The Movie" is capitalized on purpose :) I had to add a few more chapters between Phet's house and the actual quest, but I have the chapters in between written, and am literally working on the next chapter as you read :) R&R!**

* * *

The next morning I wake up to the smell of something cooking, and I open my eyes sleepily. Nik's face is inches away from mine, and Ren is on the floor beneath me. I kiss Nik's forehead gently, and slide silently out of the cot. I gently sidestep Ren's sleeping form, and pad over to Phet.

"Good morning, Phet," I greet him. "Where did Kishan go?" I ask when I notice that he isn't in the hut.

"He go talk to goddess. He have special way of talking to her," he says as he scoops something into a dish.

"That makes sense," I say thoughtfully. "I mean, he is married to her…"

Ren stirs on the dirt floor. "Who's married to who?" he mumbles as he sits up sleepily.

"Good morning sleepyhead," I say with a smile. "I was talking about Kishan and Durga. Phet said that Kishan is talking to her."

Ren looks confused for a moment, and I smirk. "Ren, we are about to retrieve a magical book for a goddess, who happens to be your three hundred year old brother's wife. I don't really think we get to be shocked that he can talk to her."

Ren glances around the room, and then he sees Nik on the bed. "Should we let him sleep or wake him up?" he asks me with a furrowed brow.

I think for a moment. "Well, do we want to be able to put him down for a nap and to bed at a normal time? If it doesn't matter, then let him sleep," I answer.

"Phet?" Ren asks, looking at the man. "Are we going to do anything today, or are we just talking?"

Phet tilts his head in thought. "Just talk. Many things to say, and not much time."

"Okay," Ren says. He then looks up at me. "Wake him up?"

I nod. "You or me?"

He smiles. "Well, he's probably going to cry, so would you rather me deal with it?"

"That sounds so cruel. 'Would you like me to deal with it?' Oh yeah, our only kid is screaming. Do you want me to deal with it, or you?" I comment, in a poor impression of Ren's voice.

"What was that?" Kishan asks, coming through the short door.

"Nothing," I say with a grin. "Ren and I are just deciding who is going to wake Nik up."

"Oh. I'm staying out of this one," Kishan says as he leans back in the open chair.

"Okay," I laugh. "Ren, how about I get him and you can get dressed, and then I can give him to you and get dressed?" I suggest.

Ren considers my idea, and then nods. I cross the room and take one last look at my son's peaceful face before it is twisted in tears of anger. I take a deep breath, and pick him up gently.

"Nik, it's time to wake up, sweetheart," I coo as I walk outside. "I know you want to sleep, but you need to get up."

He stirs, and then wails. I sigh as I adjusted position, and hold him against my shoulder to rub his back.

"Shh, Nik. It's okay, mommy's here. It's alright. Shh, shh," I soothe him, bouncing up and down as I pace back and forth away from the door.

After a few minutes his wails subside into hiccups, and the only tears present on his angelic face are ones already shed.

I place Nik on my hip and tap his nose with my index finger.

"Hello, little man. And how are you this morning?" I say as I hear his giggles of mirth.

"Are you happy, little guy?" I ask rhetorically, and spin around just fast enough to get him to laugh again. I lean my forehead against his and smile softly.

I carry him back inside and hand him off to Ren. I grab a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, some cleaning necessities, clean underwear, and a sports bra as I head out side to the jungle.

I come back ten minutes later feeling much better. I washed my face in the creek nearby and slightly rinsed my hair to get some of the dirt out. After braiding my near-waist length hair down my back and tying it with a light blue ribbon that matched my T-shirt, I had gotten dressed quickly and trotted back to Phet's to get started.

~TR~

When all of us are situated around the table with a bowl of steamy food in our hands, Phet begins.

"Durga need Book, hmm?" Phet says happily. "Not easy task."

"We know," Ren says, tightening one of his arms around my shoulders and the other around Nik, who is perched on his lap.

"But not impossible," Phet reminds him. "Have done harder things, Kahl-see has."

"Hey!" Kishan says indignantly. "Ren or I, or both of us, was with her when she did those things," he protests.

"But Kahl-see deal with you two," Phet says. "Very hard thing to do."

I can't stop laughing. "Thank you!" I tell Phet, with tears streaming out of my eyes. As I try to control myself, I can see Phet chuckling softly, which makes it that much harder to concentrate. I compose myself and tell Phet to continue.

As Phet resumes talking, I look at Ren's face. It is hard and cold and I don't think that it's because Phet said that he's hard to deal with.

"I prepare for this many years ago," Phet says. "Much harder than before."

I wasn't really worried before. I mean, the other tasks were hard, no doubt about it, but we all survived fairly easily, save for a few instances. Ren with the brothers and their gáe bolga, me with the Kappa and the bear and the Shark, and then we were all close to dying in the Battle at Mount Kailash. But we all survived, and I never let myself doubt that we might not all survive. But now I am scared. Very, very, scared.

"What do we need to do?" I ask softly.

"Two tasks this time," Phet says seriously. "One for Key and one for Book."

I gasp. "_Two?_ We have to go through that _two_ more times?"

Phet nods. "Key in the home of the Monkeys and Book in the home of the Fey."

"Ooh!" I say. "Will we get to stay with the Silvanae for a while again?"

Kishan's eyes glitter and Ren looks confused.

"Shangri-La," I explain. "When you were...captured."

"Oh," Ren says morosely. "So, we have to essentially do the first two tasks over again?" he clarifies.

"Yes," Phet says sadly. "But after their help, task much harder."

I lay my head on the table. "Wonderful," I mutter.

"Not impossible," Phet says again. "Very possible."

"I know," I say slowly. "But still. I very nearly died on both of those quests. So did Ren and Kishan.

Ren tightens his grip on me even further, and I lean my head on his shoulder.

"I don't want to put any of my family in danger again," Ren says. "It's not worth it to put my wife and brother in danger just to help a woman I haven't seen in three years."

"Helps all of you," Phet says. "Just not clear what will happen yet."

"Phet," Kishan interrupts. "What exactly could come of this? It's not like there is a practical use for the Book."

"I help goddess hide objects. She tell me many things. I cannot tell you these things. Would be searching for self, not others."

Ren narrows his eyes in thought, and then gives up trying to make sense of Phet's sentences.

"What exactly is the plan?" I ask. "What do we need to do?"

"Find Key in Land of Monkeys. Book in Land of Fey," Phet says again.

"Is that all we are going to get?" Ren asks.

"All you need," Phet says cryptically.

"Okay, fine. We didn't really have that much more to go on before. Do we get a prophecy again? Or are we going in completely blind?" I ask.

"Seek Durga's first temple. Make sacrifice like before. Find what you need."

"Ugh," I say. "Hey. There was a missing Pylon in the Cave of Kanheri. Mr. Kadam thought that it would be a spiritual Pylon... Could we go back and try to find it?"

Phet's eyes twinkle. "Was hoping would remember. Fifth Pylon restored after Cave collapse."

I groan as I lean my head back in my chair. "Beautiful. Do we have to go through the bugs and the oil and the water again?"

Phet looks apologetic. "Yes. Kahl-see. Must test worth again."

"But we already went through four quests and killed a demon... Hasn't our worth been tested enough?" I moan.

"Kahl-see," Phet says gently. "Durga not sue if Chosen One still you. Restored Cave and traps for maybe other woman."

"Okay, I can understand that," I say. "Can we leave Nik with Nilima while we are gone?"

"Ask goddess. She know."

"Thank you, Phet," I say sincerely. "I'm glad that we know a little bit more of what we are doing now. I feel a little bit better now."

"Give me your hand," Phet says suddenly.

"Sorry, Phet. You're cute and all, but I'm already married," I grin.

"Need henna," Phet says with a grin. "Not marry."

I laugh. "That's good. I wouldn't want it to get awkward," I crack. "Plus, I kind of missed it. Can it stay when we are done with this quest?" I say as I move closer to Phet and place my right hand on the table in front of him.

"Ren, you might want to start entertaining Nik about now," I say, looking at my son's face. He was starting to look very bored, and I could sense tears on the way.

"Okay," he says, and hands Nik to Kishan.

As Phet gets out the things he needs for my tattoo, Ren spreads a blanket out on the floor, and Gets out a few toys. Kishan then moves to be next to Ren, and lays Nik on the blanket. They make faces and coo at Anik, and I smile gently at my little family. Of course, then I think about the other baby, thinking that I don't even know if it was a boy or a girl. I turn my head to Phet before Ren can see my tears, and smile weakly at Phet's questioning eyes.

"I'm alright," I say softly. "I just... I'm fine."

"Kahl-see, many good things in future," Phet says gently, swirling the stripped twig over my palm. "Be sad, but not much. Do not be sad always. Mourn, do not grieve."

"I think I understand," I say, wiping my tears. "I should be sad for my baby, but I shouldn't only be sad; I should be happy with what I do have."

"Yes!" Phet says, nodding his head emphatically. "Not many people do what you do. You special woman. Was girl when we meet. Now woman."

"Thank you, Phet."

We sit in companionable silence while he finishes the tattoo on my hand as we listen to Ren and Kishan play with Nik. Ever since he first laughed in the Jeep, Nik has been laughing very often. The high-pitched giggles mixed with the low timber of Ren and Kishan's chuckles make for a very melodic sound, and I nearly drift off several times, but jolt myself awake.

"All done," Phet announces. I look at my hand, and smile at the familiar geometrical design covering my right hand.

"Do I have fire power again?" I ask Phet excitedly.

"Yes. Not as big as before. Amulet intensifies powers. But still there," Phet nods.

I step outside the hut quickly and aim my hand at the ground. The white-hot stream of fire burns a small hole in the ground, but peters out quickly. I frown at my hand, and then shrug.

As I step back into the hut, Ren looks up.

"Something wrong, _rajkumari_?" he asks sweetly.

"I don't think so," I say unsurely. "Phet, you said that my power was more... powerful because of the Amulet, right?" I ask.

"Yes, Kahl-see. Much bigger power."

"Okay. That makes sense," I say thoughtfully. "My fire wasn't very powerful at all. Do you think Durga will give us the Amulet?"

"Not be knowing, Kahl-see. Something else to ask goddess," Phet says.

"So I need to ask her about the Amulet and if we need to bring Nik. Anything else?" I ask curiously.

"No, Kahl-see. Is all. Ask soon; faster means happier," Phet says cryptically.

"O... kay?" I say quizzically as Phet nods his confidence.

"Tonight here and leave when sun rises. Goddess tell me guardian follow you at distance. No worry about enemies," Phet plans for us.

"Well, then," I say briskly. "Since it's only about noon, how do you guys feel about going to the waterfall for a lunch picnic? Phet, you could come with us," I suggest.

"I've been wanting to take Nik to Kadam's and my parents graves..." Ren says sadly, but oddly happily.

"Yeah...," I say sadly. "Me too. Kishan?"

"Yeah, a picnic sounds fun," he says nonchalantly.

"Phet? Do you want to go with us?"

"Thank you for asking, but no," Phet says, smiling and showing us how few teeth he has. "Must clean home."

I look around the room, and it seems spotless to me, but I shrug.

"Okay. I'll pack a basket, and we can leave. Ren, will you change Nik? I think I can smell him." I wrinkle my nose for emphasis, and Ren immediately checks Nik's diaper.

"How did I not smell that?" Ren asks rhetorically, but I answer him anyway.

"Losing your sense of smell now, are you?" I laugh. "It must be your old age."

"Ideologically, Kells, you're only a year younger than me," Ren reminds me while handing Nik a toy to keep him busy.

I reach into the backpack with the food and pack some into a basket. "Yes, but technically, you are more than fifteen times my age."

"Then technically, Kishan is somewhere around five hundred hundred years old. He stayed back with Durga, and, bodily, he was twenty," Ren reminds me.

"Okay," I concede. "Kishan, you are officially the most screwed up, age wise, at least."

"Hey!" he says, looking up from packing up our bags. "I've also done the most good in the world," he says as we walk out the hut door.

"'Bye, Phet!" I call behind me. His wiry frame comes out and waves to us, but I am the only one who sees, and I elbow the boys in the ribs.

"Be nice!" I hiss.

"Yes, mother," they say in unison. They wave, but Phet is gone.

"How rude!" I sniff, pointing my nose in the air. I trot up ahead of the boys cradling Nik tightly, and slow to a walk when I can hear them talking behind me.

"Did we ditch Daddy and Uncle Kishan," I coo at Nik. "Yes, we did! Yes, we did!" I rest my cheek against Nik's head, and stop until Ren and Kishan get back, because I have no idea where I'm going.

~TR~

About an hour later, I'm cleaning up our lunch of turkey sandwiches, salad, and chocolate chip cookies while Ren and Kishan get ready to go swimming.

Once I have my suit on, I pick up a sleeping Nik and gently get him ready for the water. I walk over to my sun rock and sit down, careful not to jostle Nik too much. Of course, as soon as I sit down and sigh with relief that I got here without waking his up, Ren cannonballs into the pond right in front of us.

"Ren!" I shriek. Nik starts whimpering, and I quickly shush him. After I calm Nik down, and he is back to his normal smiling self, I turn on Ren.

But he is using his eyes on me, and I can't say anything but, "Of all the idiotic things to do."

"But you love me," he says with a grin.

"Unfortunately," I say, grinning as well. I give him a quick kiss, and follow him into the water.

~TR~

After we've been swimming for about two hours, though I've taken breaks, I tell Ren that we need to go.

"Aww, but Kells...," he begs. "Just a little longer?"

"Kelsey, we just _got_ here," Kishan says, pouting. "Five more minutes?"

I laugh. "You guys sound like five year olds. Get out, dry off, and we'll go to your old house."

They both get out of the water, albeit grumbling. After they are dressed and I've gotten Nik and myself ready, we hike for another thirty minutes and soon reach my husband's old home.

It's as dilapidated as ever. I hate using that word, because I love the house, and we left it like this on purpose, but it is... shabby. It's beautiful, but in a destroyed kind of way.

We walk slowly over to the three graves.

Ren and Kishan go to their parents but I go to Mr. Kadam's.

"I miss you, Mr. Kadam. A lot. There are so many times that I find a question and think about you, and I miss you so much that it hurts," I say softly, starting to choke up. "I wish that you knew Nik. He's so sweet and funny. You would've loved him and he would've loved you.

"You would have been able to help us with this quest, and I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving Nik behind if you were here. It's not that I don't trust Nilima and Sunil, but they will be planning their wedding, and Nik will distract them from that. I wouldn't have wanted a baby when I was trying to plan my wedding, and I wasn't even really planning it."

I wipe a tear from my eye, and look over at Kishan and Ren. They are both crying as well, and I walk over to Ren and put a hand on his shoulder.

He and Kishan aren't saying anything, so I start.

"Mr. and Mrs. Rajaram, I'm Kelsey. I want to thank you for all that you did in raising your sons. I know that without you, they wouldn't be the same. And since they wouldn't be the same, my life would be completely different. I might be dead," at this Ren flinches, "or I might be Lokesh's wife. No, I probably would just be his concubine," I say thoughtfully. "I wouldn't have had the courage to stand up to him if your sons hadn't been an example for me.

"Sure, they made mistakes," here I nudge Ren, "but that was what made them my heroes. When they made mistakes, they did everything they could to fix them. I know that I wouldn't have married Ren if you hadn't taught them the way you did. So I thank you. Because you were wonderful parents, I know have a wonderful family."

After I wipe my tears away, I kneel down between the two Rajaram gravestones and stand Nik up between my legs.

"Look, Nik," I say softly. I know what I'm about to say will make me sob. "It's Grandma and Grandpa."

Nik squeals and tries to jump. I sniffle and stand up. With Nik balanced on my hip, I run my hand through Ren's hair.

I wipe more tears from my eyes and try to compose myself. "Ren, we need to go if we want to get back by nightfall."

Ren nods, still not looking at me. He takes my hand and turns his watery eyes to me. "Kelsey."

"I know, Ren," I say, hugging him tightly with my free arm. "Come on, let's go."

Kishan gets up from Mr. Kadam's grave, and comes over to clap Ren on the shoulder. "They would be proud of you, brother."

"And you," Ren says. "There was a time when I would have gladly mortally injured you, but that was my problem. I thought... you were being just like before, with Yesubai, but... you really did love her, didn't you?" Ren asks, and I can tell that he doesn't want to hear the answer.

Kishan thinks his answer over for a moment as we start walking back to Phet's.

"Yes, I did," he says slowly. "Not as... thoroughly is the wrong word... not as... bad, I suppose, as I am now, and worse than Yesubai. No offense Kelsey," he says as an aside.

I smile. "None taken."

"But, yes, I did love Kelsey as more than a sister. I don't think I ever loved her as much as you do, because I was always afraid that she would leave me for you, and I wouldn't let myself completely love her," he continues.  
"Ha!" I laugh. "I was trying to force myself to love you completely."

Kishan shakes his head. "I was such an idiot then. Even after you told 'Saachi' how you felt, I still managed to convince myself that you loved me as much as Ren. Or at least that you would in time." Kishan sighs, and stops moving for a moment. He continues moving, and Ren asks who Saachi is.

I sigh, and force myself to answer. "When we were staying in Port Blair, right after Kishan proposed, I was taking a walk, trying to find you, actually, I came across an old woman sitting on a log. I figured that since I had no idea who she was, she would have no idea who I was talking about, and I could hash things out with her.

"Of course, I told her that I was still in love with you, but ever since that incident on the yacht, I couldn't be with you. And as soon as I turned around, it turned out that it had been Kishan in disguise using the Scarf. I felt like a total idiot."

Kishan grins. "I'm sorry, Kells. I didn't mean to make you feel stupid."

I laugh. "Wow, Kishan, being a god really has changed you."

"How so?" he asks, confused.

"Before you stayed, you would have teased me about feeling like an idiot, you wouldn't have apologized."

"Yeah," Kishan says thoughtfully. "You're right, _bilauta_."

I laugh again. "Kishan, three years isn't _that_ long."

"Why do you say that? And for me, it has been about four hundred."

"You should still remember that I'm _always_ right. Except when it comes to dealing with my love life. And I even got that straightened out."

Ren mumbles something, but I don't catch it.

"What was that?" I ask him.

"Nothing," he says. "Just thinking out loud."

"Okay," I say doubtfully.

Just then, the clearing with Phet's home comes into view, and we quickly walk over to relax and chat with the shaman.

~TR~

"Okay, I love going to see Phet, but I _really_ love coming home and taking a shower," I tell Ren as he lays Nik on our bed and I turn the hot water on.

"I know," Ren says with a smile. "I'm really glad that we have a good water heater, otherwise we would never have any hot water after you're done."

"That's the only reason I let myself take long showers," I quip.

"I'd hate for me to get into gambling and lose everything. You wouldn't be able to take thirty minute showers," Ren jokes.

I stick my tongue out at him. "You would never get into gambling."

Ren erupts in laughter. "I was sure that you would be irritated at the thirty minute shower part. But no, you tell me I would never get into gambling."

"Would you?" I point out.

"I might," he argues. "If," he pretends to think for a moment, "you ever ditched me for Kishan I might..."

I whip around, shocked. "Alagan Dhiren Rajaram, don't you _ever_ even _think_ that. In no alternate _universe_ would I leave you. There is absolutely _nothing_ that could happen to make me leave for Kishan or _anyone_. _Ever_," I say vehemently.

"I was kidding, _iadala_," Ren says with my favorite crinkly-eyed smile. "I know _that_ much at least."

I walk over to him and sit on his lap. I give him a soft kiss, and rest my head on his chest. "Good."

"_Rajkumari_?" Ren says softly.

"Mm?" I mumble.

"I think your shower is ready."

"Is it?" I yawn. "Maybe I'll take a shower tomorrow morning..."

"Kells, I'm not sleeping in the same bed with you until you take a shower."

"Why?" I mumble, my eyes closing in spite of m desire to stay awake.

"Because you smell like dirt," he says gently.

"Not peaches and cream?"

"Maybe after you take a shower."

"Fine. But we are taking it together," I compromise.

"I can do that," Ren says, the smile obvious in his voice.

Just as we open the door to take Nik into his room, Nilima comes running through the hall.

"Miss Kelsey! Come quick!" she shouts.

"Nilima?" I ask, baffled. "What's going on?"

Nik wakes up in Ren's arms and begins to cry. Ren jiggles him and looks at Nilima with the same look that I am sure is plastered on my face.

"I found it on the front porch just now," she sobs, holding a letter out to us. "I can't... just read it.

I take the letter from her, and look directly to the signature.

"Ren..." I look up at him, completely floored. "It's signed Mr. Kadam."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:****_Bayou Billionaires _****is a real show, and it is hilarious. I'm not completely sure what channel it is on, as I don't have the channel on my cable package, and I haven't seen the show in a while. Quotes from the show are directly from the show, or as close as I can get. Now that I have gotten past my writer's block, I give you a chapter with a whopping 4, 541 words! R&R!**

* * *

The five of us, plus Nik, end up around the kitchen table to read the letter. Sunil ends up reading it because he is the least likely to cry since he never knew Mr. Kadam.

Sunil clears his throat and begins.

"_My dearest family,_

_This missive will come as a shock to you. I'm sorry that I couldn't show myself when I delivered it, but that would be against 'the rules'. Before I explain, I need to say one thing. I love you all very, very, dearly. Nilima, Dhiren, Kishan, Kelsey, Sunil, and little Nik. Sunil, I've never officially met you, but I can tell that you are a fine, upstanding man, and I can think of no better man to marry my granddaughter. Kelsey and Ren, your son is beautiful, and I couldn't be prouder._

_When Nilima and I were taken before the harpoon hit us and I saw the future, I not only saw the fact that I would have to die, I saw this task. That, my dear Kelsey, was why I was acting oddly. I knew that I couldn't warn you, and I knew that if I did, you would spend the next three years of your life worrying and planning, not being happy. And you have been. Remarkably so. The fact that you have been so happy makes me the happiest man in the world. Except, possibly, Ren._

_Now I get to be the bearer of good news. I can help you. When Nilima and I were in Limbo, for lack of a better term, we traveled back to the Cave of Kanheri before the fifth Pylon was destroyed._

At this Kishan, Ren, and I look up at Nilima and she shrugs.

"I don't remember any of this. Though I'm not surprised that Grandfather wanted to help you."

I look at Ren and he nods at Sunil to continue.

_I have translated the prophecy from the Pylon into English, making some word swaps to make the poem rhyme. I have also included some research on the subject. Kishan, I'm sure that you will be able to shed some light on the subject._

_This is the last time you will hear from me. I love you all. I am sorry that we could not have been together longer._

_Anik Kadam_

_P.S.: I left this note when my present was three years in your past. I was transported to the future when the Amulet took us into the Land Between Lands. By the time you read this, I will have been transported back to my present. So, I am sorry, but you will not be able to find me, because I no longer exist in your time._

Sunil passes around the letter and we all examine it. When it reaches me, I flip thru the attached pages, and see the prophecy written in Mr. Kadam's familiar calligraphy.

_Far below the temple grey,_

_the Book is guarded by the Fey._

_The monkey king's most dangerous game._

_The thorny dangers so far in the past _

_now thank you with their prickly grasp._

_You shall return to them in a land so vast._

_Paradise awaits you now_

_with soiled paint upon your brow._

_The wicked Siren's nest is down, _

_with guarded child close at hand._

_You must unlock the silver hand_

_to reach the eastward fire land._

_The third direction stands alone._

_with no tiger's blood able to condone._

_The blackened jewels to their northern home._

_The food of India shall, at last, rest,_

_and, traded now for Durga's best,_

_it will be placed at the west._

_After all these things have been completed,_

_Man and Tiger at last in balance._

"The monkey king's most dangerous game...," I mutter. "Well, we are going to Kishkindha..."

"What do you mean?" Ren asks.

"Well, Kishkindha is supposed to be Hanuman's realm, right?" I press. "What if he has hidden the Key, and he has set up some kind of game to get it?"

Kishan rubs his chin. "You might have something there, _bilauta_. I was thinking about the directional stuff."

"Yeah," I say thoughtfully. "I have a feeling that whatever we come up with is going to be drastically wrong, and it will just set us back."

"That seems to have happened before, hasn't it?" Ren asks flatly.

"Ren, I know you don't want to do this. But we are going to, so just get over it," I joke. "But seriously, moping isn't going to help anything."

"I know," he says slowly. "I just wish that it would."

"Okay, Ren. We've done this four times before. We can do it again," I say confidently.

Ren takes my hand under the table. "Thank you, _rajkumari_. I needed that."

"I know," I say with a soft smile. "Why do you think I said it?"

He gently kisses me, and Kishan clears his throat.

"I know that you two are married and all, but it is kind of weird to see my brother making out with my ex-fiancée," he says with a laugh.

I sigh. "As much as I love you Kishan," I say as Ren tightens his grip on my hand. "As a _brother_," I amend, "I really wish that that part of my life never happened."

Kishan laughs loudly. "I know, Kells. Me too, kind of. But Mika thought that she loved Ren, so it's all good."

"We are a messed up group of people," I say with a grin. "I loved one brother, but decided that he broke my heart too many times, and got engaged to the other, and then we got transported to four hundred years in the past to find a Barbie warrior who then thought she loved the brother that I originally, and still, loved. Of course, eventually, the Barbie warrior ends up marrying the brother I was engaged to, and I married the brother I always loved, but pretended not to," I finish, both Ren and Kishan gaping at me.

"You make it sound so awful," Kishan says softly.

"I think that for Ren and me it was," I answer. "I had to hide my love for him, which was at _least_ three times larger than mine for you, and Ren had to watch me do it. It wasn't exactly easy."

"And I had to watch it knowing that your love for me was at least _five_ times more powerful that your love for Kishan," Ren says, pulling me close into his side.

I curl my feet up into my side, and lean my head on Ren's shoulder.

"At least it all turned out right in the end," I say with a sigh. I look up at the microwave to see what time it is, and am shocked that it is already eight o'clock.

"Okay, at the risk of sounding like a total technology obsessed person, I need to be at the TV right now. My favorite show is on," I say, walking out of Ren's arms.

"Really?" Kishan says incredulously. "We are talking about going on a quest that could potentially endanger everyone in this room, and you are concerned about missing a TV show?"

"Kishan, what are we going to do in the hour it takes to watch a show?" I ask seriously. "I know we could all use some comic relief after that, and this show is hilarious."

"Fine," Kishan says with a sigh. Then he gets a glint in his eyes. "Can I choose the next show?"

"Okay," I say slowly. "Should I be concerned?"

"Very," he says with a very concerning look on his face. "Well, it's not bad, but I'm going to make you watch a genre of film that I_ know_ you can't stand," he says with a grin.

"At least we're watching _Bayou Billionaires_ first," I say happily as I skip over to the family room and change the channel to my channel.

~TR~

After an hour of total hillbillies spending the thousands of dollars they make from living on property that is sitting on top of a huge oil "mine", Kishan relents.

"Okay, _bilauta_, that was too funny to force you to watch something you don't like," he says with a big smile.

"I told you!" I say. "'Can we get us some al-fray-doe at the Country Club?'" I say in a mock Louisianan accent.

"'I love my new teeth'," Kishan says without moving his lips and curling his lips into a tortured looking grimace that _looks_ like it is supposed to be a winning smile.

"As a deer head falls out of the refrigerator," Ren says, still laughing.

"Kishan, what were you going to force us to watch?" I ask.

"I honestly have no idea. I was thinking about an action movie or something, but I knew I wouldn't end up doing anything," he says sheepishly.

I roll my eyes. "Of course."

"Anyway," Kishan says seriously. "Not that I don't love being back with you guys for a while, but I would like to get back to my wife and kids as soon as possible."

I sober up immediately. "I understand. What do you want to do?"

"Well," Kishan says thoughtfully, "I was thinking that the day after tomorrow we could go to a temple and leave an offering, then leave after we get back, unless Mika tells us something huge that completely changes everything. How does that sound?"

I look at Ren and he looks resigned. I sigh, and nod.

"That's fine. Nilima, can you watch Nik while we are gone?" I ask.

"Yes, that's fine, Miss Kelsey," she answers.

I roll my eyes at her formality and thank her. "And Nilima? Take a hint from your fiancée," I joke. "He has no problem calling me Kelsey."

"That's because the first time he saw you he was under the impression that you were a threat to his existence, and 'Kelsey' is the most polite thing he has ever called you," she teases me right back."

"Touché," I smile. "But still. You are my son's godmother. And I've always told you to call me Kelsey."

"And you've also told Ren that he shouldn't pout about going on another quest. He still does," she says with a satisfied smile.

I throw my hands up in the air. "Beautiful. I am completely ignored in this household now."

Nik cries reach us from the floor above, and both Ren's and my heads swivel to the stairs.

"I've got him," I say quickly, and walk up the stairs to his nursery.

When I open the door, Nik stops crying for a moment to see what's going on, I assume, and then resumes as if to remind me that he is still there.

"Oh, Nik," I say lovingly. "Mommy's here, darling."

I lift him out of the crib and gently rock him back and forth. I sing lullabies gently and pace back and forth as his sobs slowly subside, and his hiccups of sorrow soon morph into the gentle infantile snuffles of sleep, and I sit down in the rocking chair. I don't take my eyes off my son, and, before I know it, I am fast asleep as well.

~TR~

Two days later, we travel towards Hampi to go to the first temple I ever "toured". As we drove away from the house, I waved back to Nilima, Sunil, and Nik, and I notice Sunil gazing at Nilima which makes me smile.

"They are going to have kids as soon as they get married," I comment, flopping back into the seat.

"Why do you say that?" Kishan asks as Ren deftly turns out of the driveway.

"I saw Sunil looking at Nik, and it was almost as intense as Ren looking at him. It was kind of creepy. Ren, I'm not sure that we are going to be getting our son back," I say happily.

"I don't think that Nilima will put up with that," Ren says. "She loves Nik, but I know she doesn't want a baby right now."

"Sunil can be _very_ convincing when he wants to be," I say, and then wish that I hadn't.

"Why do you say that?" Ren asks suspiciously.

"Well, I didn't mean to say it, but since I did, I have to explain it, don't I," I say. "I talk to Sunil a lot when I wake up in the middle of the night. He pretty much says the same thing to me that I say to you. I just believe him instead of listening to myself," I explain.

"You don't have to pretend you don't have friends, Kells," Ren says sympathetically."

"I just feel bad that I tell him more than I tell you, just because of your different reactions."

"Well, I mean, I wish you would tell me everything, and I think you should, but I'm not going to divorce you over it," he jokes.

"It's just things like, a few nights ago when I went to bed early, I woke up really early, and I went downstairs to get a mug of tea, but he was already down there. I told him about what Kishan said, and what we need to do, and how I feel about it. I don't tell him _everything_, just things I don't tell you...," I ramble.

"Kells, you can stop," he says. "I understand. I know that Sunil loves Nilima almost as much as I love you, and I know you love me nowhere near as much as I love you, but a lot none the less-,"

"Not true," I interrupt. "I love you just as much, but probably more, as you love me."

Ren looks at me through the rearview mirror and smiles. "Whatever you say, _iadala_."

"But I'm glad that you are okay with it," I mumble.

"Kelsey," Ren says exasperatedly. "Did you really think that I wouldn't? You have a friend that you talk to. I'm not going to forbid you to talk to him or anything. I mean, he is technically our brother-in-law."

I adjust my seat while I continue the conversation. "Good. I just didn't want it to be an issue where you get jealous again, and then it blows up."

"Again?" Ren says incredulously. "When was I jealous before?"

"Really, Ren?" I say with a laugh. "You have to ask? Don't you remember Oregon?"

"I was thinking with Sunil!" Ren justifies.

"Okay, Ren," I say sarcastically. "I'll just forget about the time you almost hit Kishan because he butted in on our date."

"And got a ring to propose to her even though she was dating me," Kishan says, joining in.

"But if we forget all that, yeah, you were never jealous," I say.

Ren shakes his head and doesn't continue the conversation, but Kishan and I banter back and forth for a while, and eventually Ren gives in and talks to us for the rest of the journey.

~TR~

The next morning, before it is open to the public, Ren, Kishan, and I went to temple where our quest essentially began.

As I hike up the path, hand in hand with Ren, to the ancient building, I think about how naïve I was when we started this whole mess.

I wasn't totally naïve, but wasn't, by any stretch, prepared for what my life was to become. I had no idea that I would end up killing one of the most evil men, who had become a demon, in history.

As we enter the temple, I clutch Ren's hand tighter as Kishan finds a bell.

I place a few different small religious pieces on the indentation on front of Durga's statue. There is a small wooden cross representing Christianity and a thin, gold-plated Star of David for Judaism among other things.

Kishan rings a bell in the distance, and then jogs back to Ren and me. He takes me left hand and begins speaking.

"Mi-Goddess, I ask for protection over my four brothers and sisters; Ren, Kelsey, Sunil, and Nilima; as well as my nephew, Anik. I ask for guidance for our task, and I ask lenience for any mistakes we may make," he says sincerely.

"I ask for the same things, with the wisdom to discern what is real and what is false," I add.

"I ask for the wisdom to know where to go, and what do to where we end up," Ren says softly.

Kishan morphs into a tiger and I drop down next to him. I knew that he could still become a tiger, but I'd never thought about it until now, and I didn't realize how much I'd missed having a tiger with me.

I hug Kishan's neck and kiss between his ears.

Suddenly, it gets _really_ hot. I stand up, but instead of feeling confused, I feel peaceful. I want to know why it got really hot, but the foremost thought in my mind is not 'What the heck,' it's 'Wow, I feel good'.

Ren takes my hand as Durga's statue begins to melt. Stone slides off of the statue, and Durga's face is revealed. Her ruby lips look lovely on her dark skin again, and Fanindra is wound around one of her forearms.

"Welcome, my family," the Goddess says warmly.

Kishan walks forward slowly. "I missed you, _meri shreshthata_," he says as he wraps his arms around her tiny body.

Durga lets herself relax in his embrace for a moment, and then straightens up. She says something in a language that sounds like it consists of a series of clicks and hums. Almost like the sound of machinery, only... more human sounding. It's very bizarre.

Kishan grins, and responds in the same tongue. It sounds like he is asking Durga a question, and she responds by shaking her head, so I get curious.

"Is something wrong?" I ask.

Durga turns to face me. "No, my daughter. Something is very right, actually. I will let my husband tell you, when... _he's_... ready." She glares at Kishan, and I decide to ignore it.

"Now, to business," Durga says briskly. "And before you all begin being formal, please, call me Ana, or Mika. I so rarely hear that name now."

Ren steps forward. "Mika, then. Can you tell us anything that will help us?"

I can tell you one thing, and give you many more. But your gifts will come last," Ana says, beckoning me forward with a wave of her hand.

"Kelsey, you have had a hard life for a few weeks haven't you?" she says sympathetically.

"Yes, Godd-Ana," I say. "But I am trying."

"I know," the goddess says softly. "I do have things that will help, though."

She motions for me to move even closer. "The Queen of the Serpents."

Fanindra slithers up my forearm, and I pet her head.

"The Golden Fruit," she says shortly, and ties it with a thin string to my belt loop.

"The Divine Scarf," Ana says as she wraps the Scarf around my waist.

"The Pearl Necklace," she says and clips the jewels around my neck.

"The Rope of Fire," she says, and the onyx whip finds itself in my grasp again.

"And last, but certainly not least," she says dramatically, "the Damon Amulet."

She settles the full Amulet over the Necklace, and I feel power rush through my veins once more. I bow to the goddess, and retreat to Ren's side. "Thank you, Ana."

"It is your turn, White Tiger," Ana says, and Ren walks forward after kissing the top of my head.

"Give me your hand," she says, and Ren extends his right hand, palm facing upwards.

She hovers her hand just above his, and a white mist flow through the inch separating their hands. Ren cringes in pain, and I step forward to help him.

"No, do not come close," Ana says sternly. "He must adapt his body to the Tiger again."

"You mean he'll be able to be a tiger now?" I say ecstatically.

She nods, and Ren falls to the floor. I rush to his side, ignoring Durga's protestations.

I hug Ren's furry neck tightly, and then pull back to look at his face. I realize that I had the entire ting memorized, down to the placement of his stripes. Ren leans his enormous forehead against mine, and then pulls his head back, panicking.

"Ren, what's wrong?" I frown. He looks at all his paws, and then relaxes. He holds out his front left paw, and there is a gray stripe of fur.

He changes back to a human, and the ring comes with him. "Thank goodness," He says, and wraps me into a tight hug. "I almost thought that I'd lost it."

"You know, even if you did, we could have gotten another one, and when you needed to turn into a tiger, I could have taken it for you," I laugh.

"It still scared me, _rajkumari_," Ren says.

Ana cleared her throat, and we turn to face, though Ren keeps his arm around me shoulder.

"There is more." She waves one of her arms, and the air around the base of her statue shimmers.

The _gada_, _chakram_, _trishula_, my bow and arrows, _kamandal_, and two brooches appear.

Ren's eyes widen, and I have to hold him back from rushing up to the steps and grabbing all the weapons.

"These will all be of use to you on your quests," Ana says. "There is one more thing unfortunately.

"Dhiren, Kelsey, your son is vital to the quest. I wanted to amek sure that you took him to my servant home because I knew that it would make him happy, but you _must_ take him with you."

I nod, but Ren runs out of the building.

"Oh, no," Ana frowns. "When one of you eaves, I change back," she says, her skin taking on a grayish tone. "My brother and his betrothed would be help-." She's gone.

Kishan sprints out after Ren, bellowing his name.

"How could you?" he says. That was the last time I will see her in who knows how long, and you stopped it!"

Ren turns around, furious. "I'm sorry, but your _wife_ just told me that we have to bring my infant son on a quest that has nearly killed all of us! Should that not upset me?"

Kishan's temper seems to cool down a bit, and then he sighs. "Ren, if Kelsey just dumped you off without an explanation or many memories, and you saw her for the first time in a month and a half. Would you be mad at me for making her turn back into stone?"

"No," Ren says, even though we all know he would be.

"Okay, okay," I say, stepping between the boys. "Kishan, I know that he upset you. I also know that he is infinitely more upset than you. Let it go," I say, narrowing my eyes at Kishan.

I turn to face Ren. "But you had no right to just run out. We knew that this would be a possibility. It's going to happen, and there isn't anything we can do but protect Nik with everything we have, which is quite a lot," I say surely. Ren is refusing to look at me, so I tap on his chin.

"Hey," I say softly. "It'll be okay."

Ren turns away and stiffly walks back to the Jeep.

I sigh and turn back to Kishan, only to see that he has gone back to the temple to collect the weapons.

I pull my phone out of my pocket, and hit a button to call.

"Hello?" A voice says on the other end of the line after a few rings.

"Nilima?" I say wearily. "It's Kelsey. We need to talk.

~TR~

The next morning just before dawn, we meet Nik, Sunil, and Nilima at the entrance to Kishkindha.

Nilima is cradling a sleeping Nik into her shoulder and holding Sunil's hand on the opposite side. A backpack is carelessly flung over Sunil's shoulder, but I don't know why. We told them about the Fruit and the Scarf.

Nilima appears to be carefree and smiling, but, upon closer inspection, her smile seems slightly forced, as does her laughter. I quickly take Nik from her and pepper him with kisses, but I hug her tightly soon after.

"Ren exaggerates quite freely," I whisper in her ear. "It's not nearly as bad as he makes it seem."

Nilima relaxes at this, and we follow the men into the temple.

"We need to figure out a way to get into Kishkindha," Ren is saying to Kishan as we walk in.

"No, we don't," I say with an eye roll. "The first way worked just fine, as long as you don't mutilate yourself again."

"I'm not going to hurt you again, Kells," he says without looking at me.

"Then Kishan can do it. He isn't man or beast either," I answer back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Kishan says, waving his hands in front of him. "Slow down. What's going on?"

"The entrance of Kishkindha will open after we repeat the lion guy's task," I say, gesturing to the statue. "One of you needs to turn into a tiger at dawn, scratch me, and then I can sit on your back, or you could turn back into a man and I could sit in your lap, et cetera." I glance outside. "But we need to make a decision soon because it's almost dawn."

Ren and Kishan glare at each other. "Neither one of us is going to hurt you, _bilauta_," Kishan says surely.

"Oh, please," I say exasperatedly. "I've gotten paper cuts worse than what Ren did to me to get the entrance to open. Just hurry!"

Ren grumbles for a moment and turns into a tiger. He walks over to the entrance of the temple and glares at me with tiger eyes.

I glare right back, and hear Nilima giggling in the background.

I hand Nik to Nilima, and walk over to my husband. I kneel down to Ren's eye level and hold out my arm. "Thank you."

He grunts and lightly runs a claw over the soft skin of the underside of my forearm. He presses just hard enough to draw a bit of blood, but I can hardly feel it.

He quickly switches to a man and sweeps me into his arms. I squeal, and he kisses me softly.

"You know, we never did experiment with your ticklish disposition," he comments.

I groan as the wall slides up Ren assumes that I am scared.

"We'll be okay," he says sweetly. "Everyone will."

"That wasn't the problem," I say. "I was hoping you wouldn't remember that."

Ren laughs softly as he carries me down into the magical Land of the Monkeys. Everyone follows us.

* * *

**A/N: HAHAHAHAHAHA! Seriously, I am going to post the next chapter in the next 7 days. I am working on it as you seethe at me :) **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: FINALLY! Sorry about the wait, I had to start working on summer homework. I have SO MUCH. There is an important Author's Note at the end, so if you enjoy reading my baby, read the bolded print at the end! And now, with further ado, after nearly two months of preparation, the Quest begins! R&R!**

* * *

After a few minutes of climbing downwards, Ren sets me down. I take Nik from a terrified looking Nilima, and smile at her. She seems to calm just a bit, but I notice that her grip on Sunil's hand could be cutting off his circulation.

I leave Kishan muttering quietly to Sunil, and trot up to Ren.

"You scared Nilima," I accuse quietly.

His answering look is very confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You've been so overprotective of me and Nik that she's worried."

He smiles. "It's not overprotective if it's justified, _iadala_."

"You're right," I say at a normal volume, "but this time it's not, so it is being overprotective. You're worse than my dad was."

Ren smiles at me. "I don't really care."

I grin back. "I know."

Ren takes my hand, and we keep walking, and I can't help but feel a mounting tension in the pit of my stomach.

~TR~

When we finally break into the grey haze outside of Kishkindha, I squint into the fog to see what is ahead. I notice that Ren has the _gada_ held in the hand that is not latched onto mine, Kishan has the _chakram _held in his hand, and Sunil is nervously holding on to the _trishula_. Nilima has the backpack with all our weapons and the two gifts that I'm not wearing. The Necklace is around my neck and the Scarf is threaded through my belt loops. I silently ask the Scarf for a backpack, and go over to Nilima. I feel the last of the threads whispering across my shoulders, forming the straps to my back pack, and unzip Nilima's.

"I'm just taking some of your load," I say. I take out the brooches, bow and arrows, and the _kamandal_. "There. All you have is the Rope and the Fruit. If you want, you can tie the Rope around your waist; make a sling bag with the Scarf for the Fruit, then get rid of the backpack all together."

"Thank you, Miss Kelsey," Nilima says with a smile. "But I am fine. It is not that heavy."

I smile, and keep in step beside her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Miss Kelsey. I am just... nervous. I was not planning on interrupting my wedding plans to go on a magical quest," she says bluntly.

I smile, knowing that if she had said that to me two years ago, I would have been very offended. Now, it is just the Nilima that I have come to know, and love.

"I'm sorry about that. I'm honestly not even sure that's what Durga was going to say. I'm really sorry if we were wrong."

"No, Miss Kelsey, do not apologize. It is not you I am irritated with. Sunil has been... distracted lately," she admits. "After living just the two of us for so long, and him not knowing anyone outside of my work, I had grown used to him having nothing to do but love me," Nilima confesses I suppose it... bothered me when he had something else to work towards, to think about. I know it sounds slightly selfish, but I can't help but wish... never mind," she says hurriedly.

"You know, that's how I felt. When I was dating Ren in Oregon," I say thoughtfully. "He could only be a man for six hours a day and he had to go to school. After spending at least three of his hours at school, then we had at least two hours of homework, then I made dinner, and then I would read to him as a tiger. It was nice to be able to see the tiger for a long time without knowing I was in danger, but I wanted to be able to talk to him," I finish.

"Well, he was still spending every second he could with you," Nilima says softly. "I never planned on falling in love. It never seemed to fit into my plans. But Sunil... He was like a little boy, needing to be taught everything. He was fiercely protective of his sister, when anyone would talk about her. He was in awe when we saw a statue of her, and he couldn't believe that people would worship her. He was so... juvenile that he stole my heart," she admits quietly.

"Nilima, I don't think that is the correct phrase. You gave our heart to him as soon as he landed on the floor. You were blushing and stammering from the first time he looked at you. Ren and I both knew that you two would end up together before we started planning our wedding."

Nilima smiles. "I suppose. It is still...odd... to not have his undivided attention all day and every day."

I take her hand. "It's okay to not be completely in love with him every second, to the point where he is the only thing you can think about. You know Ren and I haven't always gotten along. You saw what happened when Kishan said that Nik would have to come along."

Nilima smiles. "That is nothing compared to when you were searching for the Necklace," she says gesturing to my neck.

I grin. "Nothing will ever compare to that. At least, I hope not."

Ren looks up from their huddle as we near them, and he motions for us to hurry up.

We trot over to them, and Kishan begins whispering.

"Ren and I can hear monkeys. We aren't sure exactly where they are, but we need to be careful. We were thinking that Nilima can take the extra weapons and gifts that aren't being used or that Kelsey isn't wearing and Nik, and then the four of us will form a circle around her to protect them," Kishan explains. "Is that okay with everyone?"

"Absolutely not1" Nilima says.

"I told you," Sunil says smugly.

"Oh, be quiet," Nilima says harshly. "I am just as good at fighting as any of you are."

"Probably better, in my case," I mutter.

"Nilima, I know," Ren interrupts. "And, sorry, but I wish you and Kelsey were switching places."

I glare at him, and, knowing what I could do to him, wisely stops talking.

Kishan picks up where Ren left off. "Kelsey is more experienced with the mythical creatures here. Everyone is. And you are the one Nik likes most, besides Ren and Kelsey."

Nilima nods tersely. "Fine. But only for Nik."

Ren and I lock eyes, and I walk over to him. "No matter what happens on the quest, remember that I love you, more than life itself," I say fiercely.

Ren tightens his arms around me. "Do you know something?"

"No," I answer truthfully. "I just feel like if I said that before the other quests our lives would have been a lot easier."

Ren chuckles. "_Rajkumari_, when are you going to learn that I am _glad_ we went through all that. We wouldn't be the same without it."

I sigh. "I know. And I know we discussed this already. It was hard. And now we are dragging three more people into it, one of them is our infant son."

"I thought you were glad that he had to come with us," Ren say, taking the front of the circle as I take the bow and quiver of arrows out of the extra backpack. I slip the brooches into my pocket, slip the _kamandal_ over Kishan's head, and let the Scarf absorb the backpack.

"I was pretending. I hate that he's here, I think it's pointless, but Kishan and Durg-Ana said it is necessary, so I figured I couldn't really argue," I say as I kiss the top of his head.

"The same goes for you, little man," I whisper in his ear. "No matter what happens on this quest, remember that I love you, more than life itself."

~TR~

After trekking through the foliage for a bit, we come upon the "thorny grasping dangers". However, they are all oriented differently than when we came through here years ago.

"Ren, what do you think that is?" I ask, pointing to the leaves that are all pointing to our right.

Ren scratches his head. "Well, the prophecy said that the thorny dangers will thank us. Maybe that's the direction we need to go."

I think for a moment before Kishan voices my thoughts. "We are blocked from going that way. There are kind of bushes in the way."

Nilima laughs. "We could just walk out of here and then turn right. It doesn't have to be difficult."

Ren laughs. "No, I don't suppose it does. Thank you, Nilima."

Sunil crosses over to Nilima and kisses the top of her head. "What would we do without you?" He says jokingly.

She blushes and turns away from him, but Sunil doesn't see the blush. He looks bewildered, and then retreats back to his place in the circle.

I sigh.

We keep walking, and usually don't keep up conversation very much. An hour passes, then two, and after about three hours, we come to the end of the "dangers" and to the Kappa river.

"Ren, are the Kappa and the jewels still there?" I ask, moving over to the river.

"Don't get close to it!" Ren shouts anxiously. "Yes, they are still there."

"Why?" I ask, sidestepping away from the water.

"Kells, don't you remember what happened when we were leaving?"

I nod, wondering where he is going with this.

"Why would you get any closer to them than absolutely necessary? It isn't safe, _iadala_."

"Ren, we aren't exactly in the safest environment anyway. I don't think getting close to it is going to matter very much."

Ren scoff. "Kelsey, there is no need to purposely endanger yourself, and everyone else here for no reason. I would like for us all to get out of here alive."

"Ren, that won't be an issue. There are twice as many of us and we've already gone through the trials of both realms. There really isn't any risk," I argue.

"Kells, there is. The Kappa could still sneak up on us. We could face something completely new. There are infinite possibilities. I refuse to be comfortable," He says surely.

I open my mouth to continue the argument, but Kishan gets there first.

"Okay, you two," he says. "As entertaining as this is, you need you need to stop. Let's make camp here for the night."

I look up at the sky and notice that the sun is setting, and agree, but Ren tries to argue.

"No," Kishan says surely. "You will listen to me for once, Dhiren. I have seen much more of this world than you have."

Ren grumbles while he builds I fire, but ignore him as I direct the Scarf in making a tent big enough for all of us.

I cradle Nik gently, and think of what we have to do in the _very_ near future.

"Kishan, do you think this is big enough?" I ask him.

Kishan glances over at the tent sitting near the fire and nods.

"_Bilauta_, is Ren okay? He's acting weird."

"When _isn't_ he acting weird," I snort. "He's just being overprotective. As usual."

Kishan nods. "I hope so," he says ominously. "Are there sleeping bags in there?"

"That would be a bad thing to forget," I mutter to myself as I jump up and count how many we need. "Do you know where Ren went?" I ask.

"He just went into the jungle after he built the fire," Kishan says, pointing over to near where Sunil and Nilima are quietly talking.

I sigh, and adjust Nik on my hip as he gurgles. I ponder going after him for a moment, but then decide to just let him be.

"I'm going to feed Nik, okay?" I tell Kishan after pulling a small log into the tent.

"No, Kells. You are not allowed to feed your son," Kishan says sarcastically.

I smile. "Good to know. You want to feed him?"

Kishan looks up in alarm. "What are you implying, _bilauta_? That I have the capability to breast feed a child?"

I nearly drop Nik at the look on his face. It's a look of complete shock, mixed with some anger. It's hilarious.

"Okay, you caught me. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to let you see that I thought that," I apologize, completely insincere.

Kishan grins. "I forgive you. It's nothing I haven't heard before."

I decide to ignore that comment, and situate myself against the log as I hear Ren come through the forest.

He enters the hut just as I rest my head against the fabric behind me, and I jolt upright, startling Nik, and causing him to wail.

"Ren!" I admonish.

"I was just seeing if you wanted me to take Nik, but never mind," he says meanly. "Forget it."

I stare at him, not understanding why he is acting like this. "Ren, what's wrong?"

"It doesn't matter," he says shortly.

"Yes, it does!" I say loudly. I'm going to go give Nik to Kishan and come back. I expect you to still be here and we will deal whatever is making you be mean," I say as I exit the tent.

I approach Kishan and hand Nik to him. "I need to talk to Ren. Watch him for a little bit?" I ask.

Kishan looks wary, but nods. He takes Nik from me, and I storm back into the tent.

"Alagan Dhiren Rajaram, you had better have a good reason for acting like a two year old," I say, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

"Kelsey, it is nothing different than it has been before. This is ridiculous that we should still be going on a quest. We finished the tasks we had to, and now we should be at home raising our childr- son," he finishes softly.

"I knew it," I breathe. "You blame her, don't you?"

"No, I don- actually, yes. I do. If she had had the sense to get what she 'needs'," he says furiously, "when we could have gotten it fairly easily, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But now she 'needs' it as soon as I find out that you are pregnant, and you had only found out a week before me, and all of a sudden, my brother, who we thought we would never see again, shows up here, saying we need to endanger everyone we love, and lo and behold, there goes our family," he finishes, breathing heavily.

"Dhiren," I say, trying to stay calm. "I am going to say this as nicely as I can. I. Do. Not. Care. What. You. Think. Not now. Maybe not ever. We are doing this, and the only thing making it more dangerous is your refusal to be nice. You could help a lot by being slightly normal about this."

"No! Kelsey, we may not be married in the time where what the man says, goes, but I _cannot_ let this go on! We are going back home, and we will never talk about this again!" he yells.

A tear slides down my cheek. "If that's how you want it," I gasp. "You can leave. But I am staying here. And since I assume you won't be leaving until morning, I won't be sleeping in here. I'll keep Nik with me, since he hasn't taken a bottle yet. Don't bother coming back," I sob as I run out of the tent.

I take Nik from Kishan after wiping my tears away, and Kishan asks me if I'm okay.

"No," I say softly. "But I will be."

I ask the Scarf for a second, smaller tent. There is a small hammock close to the ground for Nik, and I rock him in there for a moment to put him to sleep before lying down and crying myself to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: I feel awful. Really, really, truly. I knew that if I wanted to post this chapter anytime soon, it would have to end here, and I would have to give you this news: hiatus. I have way too much work to even think about writing AT LEAST until the end of the summer, if not longer. I will hopefully be able to post semi-regularly come mid- or late-October, but you will get ****_maybe_**** two chapters before then. I am way behind, and writing for an hour or so to finish this up is the first time I have written in two weeks. And I haven't. Stopped. Working. EVER. I have thought about this for awhile now, and I know it is the only way to not fail all my classes. I won't stop though. I promise. I may promise things about posting timelines that fall through, but even if it takes three years, I WILL finish Tiger's Redemption. I am sad that it will become AU once Tiger's Dream is released, though... I'm not the big of a fan of AU stories... D': I'M SORRY! If it helps, I want to drop out of school just to write 24/7, so this isn't a decision I make happily...**


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